Marvellous Marlow Navigation

More good news in today's post bag. Marlow have made a donation to my Enduro Africa fundraising. With everal other pledges in the pipeline I am confident of hitting my target but dont let that stop you giving your support!

Fundraising Update

Döhle in the Isle of Man (God's Country) have come up trumps with a pledge of support. Thanks to Becky and Cliff for that. This takes my total to over £16,000.

Results for the Nautilus UK runners

Mike Jess position 17888, time 4.47:06
Garry Elliott position 20017, time 5.05:39
Mark Dickinson position 21397, time 5.25:21
Steve Doran position 22126, time 5.40:32

Well its over. We did it and despite swearing yesterday in front of witnesses that I'd never run again, today I even said to my wife that I might do it again. Reason? Although I don't know my official time (and hourly checks of the FLM website have not yet yielded the required information) I am pretty sure that I missed my target of under 5 hours. Out of the four Nautilus UK runners Mike Jess and Garry "I am injured" Elliott both put in fantastic runs to come in well under the 5 hour limit and Steve Doran and I soldiered on through the freezing rain to come home sometime later. All of us of have achieved something spectacular but that fades into insignificance set against some of the heroes & heroines that we had the honour to run with.

Its hard to put into words the experience - extremely humbling and emotional an event its most surely is. Seeing family and friends out on the course cheering you on and complete strangers extending their support is truly a wonderful experience. Memories of the pain (yes my ankle started grumbling from about 5 miles in and then growling by Tower Bridge) are starting to fade and in our small way the Nautilus UK team has hopefully made a significant contribution to the work of Seafarers UK.

London Marathon

I still can't quite get my head round the fact that 11 months ago in a red wine fuelled bout of stupidity I agreed to undertake the London Marathon to raise funds for Seafarers UK. Today, 300 miles and 50 hours of stumbling/jogging/running later I can't say I feel any fitter and I have certainly not lost much weight (about half a stone) which seems a tad unfair given the effort put in!

With a mere 38 hours to go its water/pasta/water/pasta pretty much all the way until sunday morning when I will have a bowl of Quakers porridge oast (with salt!) and a banana for breakfast about 2 hours before the race starts at 0945. The plan is to run at a constant 11 minute pace (I have averaged about 10 minutes/mile in training but I want to take it easy) with the aim of getting home in under 5 hours.

Now the excuses. I have had a relatively injury free training period compared to my running mates. The odd blister and, when I started to get beyond 10 miles, also my right ankle became very sore. I am hoping it holds out and will deploy the Iburefen gel liberally to hopefully stave off a reoccurence. Wish me luck!

Videtotel International

This mornings posting has brought a very pleasant surprise with Stephen Bond of Videotel International making a £1000 donation to my Ride for Life fundraising. Very much appreciated Stephen and this brings the total pledged and donated to £15,762!

Enduros Get together 5th April

Last Saturday night I attended an event hosted by Enduro Africa to welcome the 2008 team and give us the low down on the 2008 event (the third EA event in as many years). In short it's the toughest yet because its more technical than before. Feedback from 2006 and 2007 events have meant that the 2008 Enduros will benefit from having a route which is focused on the hugely challenging "Wild Coast" which was the highlight of those previous events. Its all very doable (apparently) and more of a mental challenge than a physical one so I dont need to worry too much about not having any offroad experience worth the name. Editors Note: when they say mental they mean scary!

We also heard from representatives from the main EA charities i.e. UNICEF, NMFC and Sentebale. Believe me when I say when you hear these guys talk about the work they do and their gratitude for what we are doing ...well just lets say I felt humbled. I dont exagerate but I had tears in my eyes particularly when hearing about the number of households in South Africa and Lesotho that are headed by an 11 year old child. Also worthy of note is the work of NMCF and in particular the projects they run for disabled children and UNICEF's project to make sure that mothers with HIV do not pass on the infection to their children. I bet you didn't know that Nelson Mandela donated 1/3 of his presidential salary to establish the Nelson Mandela Fund for Children back in 1994 (unless you've read his autobiography)?

I also learnt that (thankfully) EA are putting on some off-road training courses in Doncaster and Basingstoke. The Wild Coast is going to be so wild EA are insisting we all get some training before we go and they have drafted in seven times Dakar rider Mick Extance (www.mickexstance.com) to provide it for us.

The EA team have also been riding to destruction 3 test bikes - a Honda CRF230 Honda, a Yamaha TTR250 and a C-XR230 CCM. The pointers all look as if it will be the Honda (for a start Mick Exstance is a Honda rider ) that we will be riding but confirmation is due within the next week or so. All three bikes are proper Enduro machines and not the farm bikes the other guys have ridden in the 06 and 07 adventures. Again this reflects the fact that 2008 is going to be the best yet and they needed a machine capable of handling the challenges the Wild Coast can throw up.

7 days to go to the Marathon

Only 7 days now until the Marathon....not feeling particularly motivated or indeed fit enough to complete it but apparently this is normal! Pictured are my fellow team mates (L to R); Mike "Fit as a Butchers Dog" Jess; Garry "I am going to walk it in 5hrs and 20 minutes" Elliott; Steve "the pro" Doran and well me, Mark " I wasn't planning to run it much faster myself" Dickinson. Keep an eye out for us in our royal blue Seafarers UK running vests. My Race number is 39872, Mike is 39879, Steve is 39874, Garry is 39875.

Further fundraising news!

I have been busy pestering all my friends and industry contacts encouraging them to dip into their pockets and support my African adventure. This week I have had some great news - Jackie Smith, President of the Norwegian Seamen's Union has pledged their support. Also, Ulrich Jurgens, who serves on the Nautilus UK Council has also made a donation bringing my total so far to close to £15,000. Fantastic!