London 2 Brighton....

Bloody hell, I know it's stupid to say but running 100km in one go is hard work. I'd set myself up for a challenge by deciding to run the equivalent to 2.5 x-country marathons in one go but I don't think I'd realised how hard it was going to be. I was hoping to get it done in 15hrs but in the end it took me 17hrs to get the deed done (including a number of check-in/rest points).

Prior to running the full 100km/63miles I think the furthest I'd run would have been one of my regular 1/2 marathons. I'd upped my general fitness/stamina and was running more frequently but I hadn't put in the longer distance work, so I was putting my faith into the fact that I was feeling fit. What I hadn't planned for was how much of the distance was actually proper x-country. Only about 5% was on roads, a whole chunk of it was on bridleway but the vast majority was full on nasty X-country. If any of you have done the Dursley Dozen in the past, much of the route was like that and in some places I really hated it - it was wet and flooded in places and impossible to run through.

The oddest thing to hear me say is that the first full marathon distance was actually OK. I felt pretty good as I crossed what would be a finish line after just over 4hrs of running. Even the second marathon distance wasn't too horrible but the last 1/2 marathon distance was just about slogging-it through to the finishing line. There was nothing pretty about it in the last 20km and very little (if any) running. My left hip had frozen, the sun was going down (it was pitch black for the last hour) and I'd foolishly left my head-torch behind, thinking that I'd have been in the pub for a hour by the time I eventually finished.

In the final push, I teamed up with another runner - he provided the light and I provided the motivation (so glad I caught up with him as with out his light I don't know how I'd have managed some sections) - and together we crossed the line. Both a little bit broken but at a running pace we were cheered into the finish area. I was scanned in, received my finishers t-shirt and slugged-back a glass of bubbles. Lisa ran over and hugged me and she then took me to get my finishers meal....I think I only managed to chew down about 3 chips and a couple of mouthfuls of burger.

Will I be doing it again next year.....I thinking NOT!

Don't forget though, if you still want to sponsor me, check out my justgiving page.

This was at about the 40km stage.

No to the action cam...

Yet again I have been contemplating the possible purchase of an action-cam. Just because I tend to enjoy bucking the main trends I was planning on staying clear of the GoPro and was looking at the ION Air. However, after my usual unnecessary amount of faff I have again decided that I want the lifestyle in-front of the camera (check out the GoPro-Black promo-vid to see what I'm talking about), rather than being the guy with a camera strapped to his head, board, bike or even chest. So..... I bought myself a new wakeboard. Starting to get to grips with the old wake-park milarky (an excellent and underused word) but sooooo not a fan of the way it's trashing my O'Brien Decade! So I have old skool and bought myself an O'Brien R5 - it's an old series and fin-less but should be able to take a beasting from the rails and kickers. The only problem being that it's fin-less and so it'll be an entire new feel for me again.

In other wakeboarding news, I have just spotted an amazing place (via the old t'internet) on the Exe. I was looking at Exewake and then spotted the River Exe Cafe.....it's a floating cafe - how cool is that! Going to have to pay it a visit the next time I'm back home for a weekend.

Finally, it's only a couple of weeks until my London to Brighton run is here. Starting to feel the size of the challenge now and even though the distance is daunting, it's the concept of having to run pretty much non-stop for 12-15hrs that's freaking me out the most. Also, having to leave home at 3am to get to the start line by about 5am is also a tad upsetting.

From this clip, it looks as though these guys are riding fin-less. How hard can it be?