The New Year has started with the first of a long string of consecutive weekends of racing. Over the past few years I have trained very specifically for just a few key races, but this year I'm using racing much more as part of my training. The first major target of the year is London Marathon (in 15 weeks). Between now and then I only have 3 weekends without a race. Over the next 15 weeks I'll be racing 7 cross country races, 4 half marathons and one off-road duathlon.

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Due to a last minute waiting list place for Abingdon, I'd managed to end up with entries for both the Abingdon Marathon and Beachy Head Marathon (only six days apart). I had decided to go for a PB at Abingdon and then just enjoy Beachy Head. As it turned out I had a much better race at Beachy Head.

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After a very hectic couple of weeks we are now living in our new house in Eastbourne. We are just now starting to feel a bit more settled and although the house has a lot of work to do, it is starting to feel like home. There has been so much to do that I've not had much of a chance for any training for a few weeks, but now we are settling in here I've managed to start exploring the local trails. Getting up onto the Downs reminded me why we chose this location - it is beautiful up there and absolutely ideal for training.

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That was not a good race. I've been feeling pretty rubish for a few days and I really shouldn't have raced. It was a rather cold and damp day. I set off at a good pace (3:40 min/km) running with a team mate (Gerard). I started to feel pretty tired before 10km and by the 10km point I was already slowing. Ended up feeling really weak and light headed and had to walk several times in the last few km. Finished in a very dissapointing 1:28. Sometimes running when you feel ill pays off (as with my last marathon PB) - but not this time!

This was going to be the big one, the race I'd been preparing for for months. I was gutted when, two days before the race, I got ill. On the Saturday I was feverish and felt very weak - there was no way I could race like this. But after months of preparing I decided to set the alarm for the early start anyway - maybe I would feel better on the day.

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An early start

I had decided to drive to the race rather than staying in a hotel in Nice. So it was a 3:15am wake up, 4 rice cake biscuits with honey and off to Nice. I arrive at transition just after 5am but had to queue for about 30 minutes to get in. With transition closing at 6am and the race starting at 6:30 I didn’t have long to prepare. I joined a queue of 4 people for a toilet but the person at the front spent 20 minutes in there! I eventually got out of the toilet at 5:55 giving me only 5 minutes to get everything sorted with my bike. Another queue to get onto the beach and I only had 5 minutes until the start.

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