It was minus 2 celcius and I was munching on a huge huge cooked breakfast in a very camp and delightful B and B in Cardiff , it was icy and clear blue day and pretty much as far away physically and thermally as you can get for a desert marathon training day … I couldn’t wait to get started …right after I’d had another round of toast ….and some more coffee….and maybe some more muesli too..as I stared at the stone nude male torso wearing a diamond necklace in front of me.
Today was going to be one of THOSE days.
I was about to spend the day with 9 Guinness World Records and 12 times Marathon des Sables veteran Rory Coleman and I suspected I was in for a heavy bollocking…
Now I love Tripadvisor. You can quickly sift through the feedback and find lovely places to stay without too much hassle, on this occasion I chose a guest house called Ty Rosa based on its proximity to Rory Colemans house and its massive bulging feedback score. I didn’t check their main website and as such wasn’t aware that Id booked myself into one of the top ten gay friendly places to stay in the UK! It was glorious ! a totally lovely place with amazing decor , brilliant breakfast and I stayed in the ‘Tardis’ Suite which had a Dr Who theme, paraphernalia and even a kitchenette….and yes ….it was bigger on the inside than it looked !
The journey to Cardiff the night before was just under 150 miles…and to put that into perspective…Guildford to Cardiff is roughly the distance of the Marathon des Sables race….except its on foot, and you carry your own gear…and its 50 Celcius.
I met Rory at his home in Cardiff and after a cup of tea we settled down to a well organised assessment of my mainly incorrect choices for kit for the desert so far. Rory is a man so obsessed with weight he has electronic scales on his desk like a drug dealer. He even knows how much a 200 Euro note weighs to 5 decimal places.
Its worrying and impressive in equal measures.
After about 2 more hours of his tutting I had a definitive list of kit I was going to use in the desert. Sleeping bag , bag configuration , food plan , everything I needed. The advice here alone will save me about £400 in kit I didn’t need or would not have done the job, or worse hindered my efforts. EVERY person bar one that saw Rory last year completed the MdS.
I also had a brilliant lesson in taping my feet and toes up properly with the right tape and technique, Something that will be very useful for the rest of my running adventures.
We then set off for a ‘quick’ sub 6 hour marathon run round the Cardiff coastline. Both of us are more than used to stupid weekly mileage so the hours flew by as we got selfies with Daleks, visited the pier for Kit Kats and visited some the the best Public Sex Environments Wales has to offer. All on a clear blue day. Cardiff was on its best behaviour other than the temperature.
I was underwhelmed by the dinosaur footprints in the rocks on the beach though……if I’m honest .
The long run gave me a chance to chat generally about my concerns for the race (now 79 days away ) questions about the night section , stupid things other people have done etc etc and also get to know more about the inspiring story of an overweight man who smoked and drank and one day made a decision to leave that lifestyle behind….and never looked back. As a former fatty myself much of his motivation rings true with me too.
Rory isn’t short of a hilarious story or two , and spoke very fondly of his time running with Sir Ranulph Fiennes last year .
I left that day very pleased I spent the day there , both financially and also mentally. At this late stage there is little that can be done training wise, you’ve either done the mileage and training or you haven’t and in about 3 weeks Ill do a 150 miles in 6 days challenge before then tapering to the race itself.
I’m not sure he liked me referring to him as Sand Yoda though.
It’ll be great to see him again in Morocco, I can thank him as I overtake him on day 4 ……
For life coaching and fitness training from first steps to fitness to Ultras contact Rory here