Well here it is – my 2018 Race Calendar.
Thames Path 100 – An old favourite, a 100 mile yomp along the Thames Path starting at Richmond and ending up in Oxford. I’ve had mixed fortunes with this one but if no one keels over in front of me, I don’t get lost (on a course I have run countless times), I don’t lose too many toenails then I’ve got a real chance this year!
Riano Trail Run – Off to sunny Spain for this one and a three day Irún in the Picos mountains. Check out the video here and you can see it looks an amazing course run over three days. I will be camping in the athletes’ tented village which should be a giggle. There are UTMB points to be had as well …. never say never right!
Sierra Nevada Ultra – If at first you don’t succeed then try, try and try again. This is the one I had a go at last year and is part of the Spanish Cup – I actually got quite far compared to a lot of runners but finally the 46c heat determined that I should come back and fight the course another day. It’s a truly amazing run and Granada is a beautiful city to stay in and recuperate.
Salomon Ben Nevis Sky Race – Don’t ask me how I managed to blag an entry but I did. Perhaps they thought my age was a typo! But anyway I’m going to give it the full beans and we will see what happens. I’ve always wanted to enter a Sky Race a la Kilian and the other greats and this is my chance.
So this is what I’ve entered but you know my organisational skills by now – in fact I tried to enter the Sierra Nevada twice but they were kind enough to tell me that I had already paid and registered. But that’s not all…
I’ve got my trans Country to fit in too. In 2016 I ran across Spain via the Pyrenees. 2017 saw a mad dash across Italy in just 7 days and this year ….. well at the moment I am considering doing the GR20 trail which runs the length of Corsica and is classic. Kilian did it in 30 hours so on the basis that it took me three times longer than him to run across Spain I reckon 90 hours is on!
Finally I’m still trying to make a film of my epic adventure across the PyreNees to go with the book (I’ve got to Andorra in the book and it’s only a year late). So if anyone has got a spare $25,000 knocking around give me a shout – fantastic publicity guaranteed!!