Col went off to marshall an Ultra Race over the last weekend, an ultra is anything over the marathon distance of 26.2miles. This was a race where people ran 29miles along the Grantham canal on the Saturday, and then ran the 29 miles back on the Sunday. Pretty impressive huh? Col ran it last year, I can only dream of running such a distance, and yet one runner, took part and had only been running since Christmas; apparently his wife bought it him for a Christmas present, while not meaning to sound ungrateful, its not a present I'd be that grateful to receive!
Many of the runners in this Ultra are in training for the Marathon De Sables which is a dessert ultra, and as if running in the dessert heat for 5 days over sand dunes isn't enough, they have to carry their gear; water, food, clothes, sleeping bag, first aid kit, cooking utensils etc. As though this isn't unnapealing enough, the rocks that they cross are razor sharp and often slash running shoes in half, the spikes on the shrubbery are so long that they can pierce the sole of a running shoe and there are scorpians to contend with too;y one runner had to pull out of the race before he'd even started when he got stung by a scorpion that was hiding under the break pedal in a car he was planning to drive the day before the race - ouch.
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