gallowaygrave says:
July 22, 2010 at 7:13 am

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The four horsemen of the apocalypse wouldn’t be out of place?
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LONDON🏅 • If London is your first marathon, as it was mine back in 2016, remember this: • There will come a time when you feel as if the whole world is whispering that you’ll fail. Just look down at your feet and remember the mountain of miles they’ve already taken you so far and scream back I’m already winning. • Trust me, you have no idea of what you are truly capable of. • This year’s London will be my 20th marathon and my fourth London and I cannot wait to celebrate this incredible race with the rest of you. If you see my on the course give me a shout! • • #londonmarathon #vlm #runnersofinstagram #runnerscommunity #runfam #instarunners #londonmarathon2019 #londonmarathontraining #marathon #marathoner #marathonrunner #marathontraining

Day 7: 6km • The final stage is a charity untimed 6km where we all walk together to the unceremonious end of the Marathon des Sables; a 4-6 hour journey to the hotel. • The first thing we all did was finally shower after 9 days in the desert, which was both disgusting and incredible. • The first night back in a real bed was one of the worst nights sleep I’ve ever had. The sheer level of comfort compared to the desert floor should have resulted in a deep, glorious sleep but it did the exact opposite. • We would spend the next two days doing very little except; eating everything we could touch, drinking the hotel dry and trying to reacclimatise to normal life again. On the flight home the toughest footrace already began to feel like a wonderful dream. One I never ever want to forget. • Thank you so much to everyone who messaged me during the race and on social media since. It’s been truly heartwarming and something I’ll treasure for many years to come. • #marathondessables #marathondessables2019 #mds #runnersofinstagram #runfam #instarunners #runchat #runhappy #runnerscommunity

Day 6: 42km • I started the final timed stage of Marathon des Sables leading the pack. • Since the top 150 elites start three hours later some of our tent thought it would be hilarious to sprint the start of the race. It was funny until we took the lead and realised we had no bloody clue where we were suppose to be going so had to slow down! • Within 8km we arrived at one of the parts of MdS I had been fearing the most; the ascent of Jebel El Oftal. Jebel is essentially a North African way of saying hill or mountain and climbing it’s sandy peak is no easy feat. Since I suffer from vertigo it wasn’t just a challenge, it was primal fear moulded out of sand and rock. • Ascending it took a lot of time as you could only go one at a time and luckily @iancorlessphotography was perched on top of the Jebel to capture the fear/determination on my face. • Getting to the top of that felt indescribably incredible and having @susie_chan_ there for a hug at the top made the moment extra special. • The rest of the stage felt hard if I’m honest. I had run out of energy on the long stage and my body was now running on fumes alone. • After seeing the finish line for the first time, but with about 3 miles still to go, my body burst back into life only to fall down a sandy decent. I lay on the hot sand and thought momentarily about how ridiculous, brutal and beautifully raw the past week had been. I pocketed some sand in a bag to remind me of this sweaty moment of reflection when life painfully returned to normal once again. • As I crossed the finish line I was a mix of two very powerful emotions; pride and sadness. Pride of having gone through all the training, all the mental struggles, all the heat and trials that the desert had to throw at me and come out on top. And sadness that it was all over and that life would never be the same again. • 📸 @iancorlessphotography and @susie_chan_ • #medalmonday #marathondessables #mds #runchat #instarunners #runnersofinstagram #runnersworld #runningmotivation #running #motivationmonday

Day 5: Rest Day • After the long day at Marathon des Sables there is a day to rest, recover and prepare for the marathon stage the following day. • Having finished the long day at 5am with no sleep I expected to fall straight to sleep but because all of my tent bar Mark were yet to finish I found myself worrying. The empty tent haunted my tired eyes. • My ankle was incredibly sore so I laid out my roll mat and put my feet up, trying to alleviate some of the pain. • The next few hours past by in sleepless dosing until finally the rest of our tent arrived home battered but undefeated. • The rest of the day was spent exchanging stories of the night before and our lives before the race. The instant and powerful bond shared between our tent and the extras nearby had us pass the hours effortlessly, laughing like toddlers and napping like newborns. • The highlight of the day besides getting our messages from friends and family was getting our treat from the organisers; a cold can of Coke which we guzzled down quickly. • 📸 @iancorlessphotography • • #mds #marathondessables #mds2019 #ultrarunner #ultramarathon #trailrunner #trailrunning #desertrunning #runchat #ukrunchat

Day 4: 76km • The long day will go down in history as one of the hardest days of my entire life. • I started the stage in a foursome, Joe and Grace from my tent and Charly who I’d met via social media before coming out. Joe and Grace are siblings taking part in MdS to raise funds for Walk Once More and to mark the 10th anniversary of a car accident that changed their lives forever. I’m proud to call these two incredibly inspiring, hilarious and kind people friends. Grace has been battling with dehydration since day one and sadly she didn’t make it to the end of day four. Shortly after we left her she was taken to the medical tent back at camp and her race was over. Thoughts of her swirled through my mind for the rest of the race, wishing we could be there to keep her company. • It was shortly after Charly and I found out that Grace had to be pulled out that we were hit by our first sand storm. Just to add to the emotions of it all we now had sand absolutely everywhere! • Charly and I battled on, keeping each other’s spirits lifted as we wandered into the night. Her achievements number in the thousands. There isn’t much that Charly hasn’t triumphed against. • The incredible sunset that I had been dreaming of since I signed up for this race signaled the start of the toughest part of the race. • Firstly we bumped into two more of our tent mates, the sight of James staggering delirious told us that something had gone horribly wrong. Lirim and James aka @dorabros are crazy as not only are they undertaking the hardest race on the planet but then jumping in a boat to row the Atlantic! It took us hours to guide and support James to the checkpoint as he would throw up or need to rest every ten minutes or so. A true test of his character is that he never ever gave up. • After we left them at the checkpoint we pushed on, chucking on some Taylor Swift for motivation. • As the end neared so did my energy levels. I would find myself falling asleep midwalk, having only woken up as I stumbled towards the ground. Some gels and eating a sachet of coffee later we finally reached the finish line. Exhausted in every sense. • 📸 Credit @iancorlessphotography

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The Big Race

Marathon Des SablesApril 7th, 2019

The big day is here.

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2016 was my first year of running, 2017 I reached 11 marathons. 2018 I'll be running these races and my first 50 Mile race! Follow me on Instagram for every step.

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