One week today!!! The race will have started!!!

Well as I type this it's only 7 days till the start of the Ocean floor race & only 4 days till me & Amanda fly out to Egypt & it can't come quick enough ( I want to see some sun).
So what have I been up to since my last blog, Well I had the opportunity to meet up with the lovely people from Buff (who sponsor my kit) & me & Ben met up with Sarah (Head of Marketing) & the rest of the Buff team at the N.E.C & it was great to finally meet them all in person instead of just through emails & Facebook .It was also great to see some of the exciting new range available later in the year.
I even got a nice posh goretex hoodie buff given to me which was very nice & unexpected.
A massive thank you once again to www.Buffwear.co.uk for all your help the last 12 months & I love running in your products, long may it continue.

Snow Training.
Well training has been mad the last week with us having snow, Its been rather hard work on the legs but I have really enjoyed it & I reckon its been rather beneficial & in a bizarre sort of way quite similar to running on sand, so thats got to be good hasn't it!!
I have not been impressed so much with trying to run when the snow started to thaw as Burntwood has been like a ice rink on the paths and way to dangerous to risk running on & getting a injury this close to the race, So I've resorted to training on my treadmill with full backpack & heater on to try and replicate the desert temperature.

New race gear.
So at long last I have finally got all my gear sorted for the Ocean floor race my latest bit of kit is amazing its the Klymit x lite sleeping pad which weighs only 173g & when folded away the same size as a can of pop, making it a perfect bit of kit for me to carry in the desert & its the first sleeping matt I have ever had which actually fits inside your sleeping bag not underneath it.

This was purchased from a amazing online company called www.racekit.co.uk which is run by Amanda & Andy Heading who are both ultra athletes & they are so helpful & knowledgable about there products , they also have vast experience of ultra events & desert races , I highly recommend visiting there website.


So all the training has been done now, kit has been got , food is ready to be packed , E.C.G tests done,
help & advice has been given by family & friends, So its down to me & Amanda to get the little task of running 160 miles together & helping & motivating each other to the finish line & I can't wait!!!!

Feeling nearly famous :)

As I write this blog it's actually just over 2 weeks till myself & Amanda fly out to the Ocean floor race.

A couple of days ago we were lucky to have been sent a picture from Fat Feet the race organisers showing us our pitched tent accommodation in the desert & this for me is building to the excitement of this epic adventure.

So what have we been doing since my last blog ?? well where do I start??

Last week we were lucky enough to be interviewed by Ian Corless for Talk Ultra's podcast 15 mins of fame slot.We were both pretty nervous about this & we didn't know what to expect as none of us were together & the interview was done via a 3 way phone call. ( first time I have ever had one of those )
I really can't believe how smooth the interview went & Ian was a great host, A massive thank you to Ian for giving us the opportunity to be on his show.  We also have a slot when we return from the desert so please keep following for more details.

Please check out the podcast by clicking here. our interview is 1hour 52mins into it, I do recommend listening to it all as its a great show.

Training has been going great, even in the cold weather.  I have been adding some extra treadmill runs into my training in the garage with heaters on full blast to get used to running in hot conditions ( much to the amusement of everyone I tell)

Also last weekend we had Amanda & Karl up at ours for a weekend of training, planning & GPS training.  I was really looking forward to this & was disappointed as our training went really well!! Planning was done down to a tee thanks to Amanda's spreadsheets & everything is now on track for the desert.

Which leaves us with GPS training!!

I defiantly speak for both of us when I say that we have not been the best at using a GPS in the past & we have muddled through it. But obviously with us having to run 160 miles across a desert using only GPS we needed to learn fast!!!!

A massive thanks to my hubby Ben for giving us both a crash course in setting them up on the morning of our training run & handing us 4 checkpoints to find & programme into our GPS units.

Then we were taken by our husbands & dropped on our run.

Sunday was a lovely sunny, but cold day & perfect for running across the beautiful countryside of Cannock Chase not to far away from where I live & Amanda was loving the terrain a bit different to what the southerners are used to !! lol !! I don't think Ben could of found us a hillier course but all the same we were enjoying it & our newly found GPS skills were put to the test.  Im pleased to say we had no problems at all, I said it was down to our newly acquired ninja skills but Ben reckons it was because he had taught us.

Pictures from our Sunday"s training session.

NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER & DETERMINATION OF A FEMALE NINJA

Just in case you are wondering what all the Ninja references & pictures are when we first started training & arranging this ocean floor race adventure, Amanda came up with the Ninja name's and its stuck ever since. Even our sponsor  t shirts have Ninja 1 & Ninja 2 on them .

Our New printed sponsor t shirts.

Im also pleased to announce that we have both been supplied with a Inov-8 race pac 25 and a massive thank you to www.inov-8.com for supplying these.  I look forward to trialling this over the weekend, although initial thoughts are I could probably do with hiring a camel to carry my kit at the desert as my pac is rather heavy!!

Please look out for my next blog at the weekend with details of a new 24hour race called The Joust 24hr which Myself & Amanda are helping to promote & organise in conjunction with Steven Worrallo at www.ultrarunningltd.co.uk/thejoust24hr.html

1st Blog of 2013 & A Mimi adventure.

Well where do I start, Its January already & me & Amanda fly out to Egypt this month for the Ocean Floor Race!!! Its come around so quickly & to say we are both rather excited is a understatement (well I think its excited or scared to death!!)

We have both loved the planning & organising & friendship which has come with this race & I am very lucky that Amanda loves spreadsheets & everything is organised down to the last bit of kit needed.
So a massive thanks to Amanda for doing that!!

So this was a rather exciting prospect for both of us as we had the pleasure of meeting up with the Marvellous Mimi Anderson if you don't know who Mimi is where have you been!!!

Below is just a few of her amazing ultra running achievements, I have listed my favourite ones & the ones I would love to run in myself one day.

Sept 2012 (WORLD RECORD)
The fastest crossing on foot of Ireland 345 miles
in 3 days, 15hours, 36mins , 55 secs

Double Badwater 2011.
1st British female to compete the double.
To do the double you run a total distance of 292 miles  in temperatures of approx 130 degrees.
A awesome achievement.

Thames Path 100 2012.
This is a 100mile non stop race starting in Richmond London & finishing in Oxford .
1st Lady finishing in a amazing time of 18 hours & 50 mins.

I could literally keep listing all the brilliant races & performances but i would be here all day lol.
Check out Mimi's website www.marvellousmimi.com to see for yourself.

Well what else can I say Mimi is the queen of ultra running & one of the nicest friendliest person you could wish to meet & Im sure not many people can say they have had coffee & a bit of PINK wine with a world record holder.  So now you can see why both of us were rather excited about receiving help & advice from her.  I stayed at Amanda's the night before so we could meet up early & as I was coming down from the midlands on the train it was so much easier this way (it didn't run as smooth as I thought on the way back but I will go into this later)

So off we set into London & on the way we were trying to decide what questions to ask Mimi & in the end we just decided it would be better to just have a good old fashioned chat & that is what we did for a good 3 to 4 hours in a rather nice hotel.  It was so nice to hear about all the different races & experiances from another female & the advice she has given us we will be using in the desert especially the advice ref drop bags & blisters simply brilliant.  We were both also lucky enough to have been lent a anti venom pump each by Mimi & this could prove to be a very important piece of kit if the worst happened ( Amanda don't worry I have been practising with mine & I'm now a expert lol) It was also lovely to hear that Mimi will be following the race to see how we get on & we will be meeting up again afterwards so she can hear about our adventure & see our photos.

A great day was had by us all & all we had to do was to get something to eat before we got the train back to Amanda's before I got my train back home, this you would think would be quite straight forward unless you lose your train ticket!!!!!  I had it when I got on the train but it was nowhere to be seen when we got to Huntington. (I never lose anything) Amanda had told me not to worry as there will be no guards on!! Oh yes there were!!! So what do I do?
These were my options.
A: Cry
B: Panic
C: Panic & try & sweet talk the guard.

So panic & sweet talk the guard it was & luckily for me after a few mins of me trying to explain what had happened he let me off phew, or it would of been a rather expensive day, but it still would of been worth it for the inspirational chat & advice from such a amazing ultra athlete.

We both throughly enjoyed the day & a massive thank you once again to Mimi for been so Marvellous & for taking time out to meet up with us both.

I have borrowed this off Mimi's website & I think its perfect for mine & Amanda's Ocean Floor Race.

THE ONLY WAY OF FINDING THE LIMITS OF THE POSSIBLE IS BY GOING BEYOND THEM INTO THE IMPOSSIBLE.