Beachyhead Marathon

On the 24th October 2014, Paula and me made the trip down to Eastbourne to Meet up with Rachel from Mencap and some of the other Mencap MDS runners. we were also given a presentation from Rachel about Mencap and the work that they do and we were treated to a great insight to the MDS by a participant of this years race Simon Moran. He gave us some great information and tips, which may make my trip to the Sahara a bit easier.

Race day was forecast to be hot and sunny throughout. It started out cold, but with a hill to start, I'm Glad it wasn't hot.











The organisers announced that we should add 40 to 50 minutes onto our normal marathon time. It soon became apparent why. Fantastic scenery, but was a tough hilly course.

































































The sun appeared after the first hour, and became quite warm. I ran with my race vest and didn't need stop at the checkpoints for water. The last 5 miles (pictured above) were the 7 sisters ( aka the bitches). The were steep in parts and had me down to a walk. My usual hip and hip flexor problems didn't kick in until the last 3 miles. The finish was down the hill that we started up, great for your knees (not).

coming into finish..... click here

finished in 4hrs 39 minutes........ happy with that







The Mencap boys at the finish


With less than 6 months to go, and with the information from Simon Moran. My mind has been on to my food that I'm going to take. MDS race rules, say you have to carry a minimum of 2000cals per day. So the trick is to find foods with highest cal to weight ratio. The best thus far is Macadamia nuts at 718cals/100g.





Other stuff Ive tried has been freeze dried






























These packs weigh 180g and on average, contain 700cals, and surprisingly they taste pretty good.





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