Run - Pink Floyd

Have you been panic buying petrol? Makes you wonder what on earth we'd do if there really wasn't any petrol at all in the UK... I think we'd all be stuffed!

Well the 97% of the population that are inactive would be...The 3% of active population, especially us ULTRA-runners would be the massive winners as well as Cyclists and Horse Riders, I believe. As at least we are used to covering huge distances under our own steam.

Back in the 1800s, Pedestrianism was all the rage and people such as Captain Robert Barclay were real superstars, making millions from walking challenges and gambling on whether they could/couldn't complete a challenge.

Perhaps, it would do the nation a big favour if we did run out of fuel and we could get the population moving once again.

I'd be up for it... would you?

The Coffee Song - Bob Hilliard and Dick Miles

Is anyone else out there addicted to Coffee?... I am...

I must say that a drop of Caffeine in the morning really gets the old body into gear and the day started for me and in the lead up to the Marathon des Sables, I am trying to cut down.

Hmmm... it would be easy except FOR THIS SPLITTING HEADACHE... which won't go as I am going to have to have a cup in a minute as nothing is shifting this one!

No wonder Costa and Starbucks have sprung up all over the place as there is now an endless stream of people needing Americanos, Lattes and Skinny White Flats to get them, and me I hasn't to add, thru our every increasingly busy pressuriseded day. Made more pressurised perhaps by our caffeine intake!

I am interested if you have gone 'Cold Turkey' on Caffeine and how long it will take before my need for Caffeine will subside...

More tomorrow... now where's that kettle?

Legs - ZZ Top

It's amazing just how much they can hurt you know... the cliffs of the Jurassic Coastline have a lot to answer for and I am sure that my Cardiff-Derby-Cardiff round trip will not make them repair any quicker! Going downstairs in a hurry to answer the door to Parcelforce at the crack of dawn (are they allowed to deliver that early?) made for a very Bambi-like journey to the front door... made even more comical by me waring Jenny's dressing gown!

The Postie didn't comment though and was probably glad to see that I had SOME clothes on... from there it things in the lower leg department didn't get much better but my Coccyx is showing signs of being less bruised and I was cheered up by daughter Pearl (7) when she said that 'She would still remember me when I was dead,' from the back of the car on the school run... surely my legs aren't killing me that much are they?

Ah well, it's the thought that counts, thanks for the vote of confidence Pearly... Now where's the Nurofen?

Up and Down - The Vengaboys

Well the second day of the Jurassic Coastal Challenge didn't disappoint... tough, hot but not totally impossible and gave us probably some of the best trail available that any ULTRArunner could ever want. The navigation isn't perhaps for those that aren't too Geographically alert (Slater did 2 more miles than me) but it's route had only a couple of places where we had been forewarned of that gave rise to some common errors of judgement.

It was quite a day to run thru Weymouth and see some of the biggest folk that England has to hand and witness the deep Olympic clean that is taking place prior to the Yachting taking place in just a few months time. Seb would be proud of the freshly painted lamp-posts along the front.

Are we running tomorrow's third and final leg, well hell no... our quads are pretty much battered now by the steep descents BUT I fell well prepared for MdeS and can definitely recommend this seaside escapade to anyone of any running/walking ability who is looking for a personal challenge. It's great...

Might do all three next time.

Don't Believe a Word - The Awesome Thin Lizzy

Now if you are a regular reader and also a marathon runner, come and have a go at this bad boy on The Jurassic Coastal Challenge... a 3 day, treble marathon (of which I am so glad to say that we decided to only do 2 of as it's close to MdeS)... Glad 'cos it was bloody brutal that's why...

There are some plain daft ascents and descents on the coastal path that literally stopped me in my tracks in the first 10 miles or so that made me realise that I talk a better race than I run... apart from the last 13 miles today on the flatter trail where I put all my toys back in my pram and 'Manned up Buttercup', with enough left in the legs to run a 5.55.25 to get me circa 70th on day one... I ended up chuffed actually...

Slaterchops, of course, set off like a gazelle and finished third overall in 4:22 which shows just how tough it was for her too as it put a good 70 minutes on her PB marathon time, which makes me feel somewhat better about my run... It did make me think that at 20 degrees today, the 50+ of The Western Sahara seems slightly more daunting but them hills in Dorset are the biggest killers I have been on in this lifetime I can tell you.

Tomorrow, well there's even harder hills to come in the last 10km near Lulworth Cove... but then that's tomorrow. All I do know is that at 2152hrs it's time for this 50yr old to turn out the light and join his 37yr old partner who has already gone to sleep - in our holiday caravan, with two strangers, We know how to have romantic weekends away eh?

Anyway, less of that and more after the next Marathon...

Time - Pink Floyd

How often do you hear people say 'There just wasn't Time' or 'I didn't have Time'...

It used to make my old boss Tony Baker, now MD of The Fat Duck, restaurant's blood boil, if you chipped up that excuse for not getting things done. But help is at hand as the 26 hour day is coming our way... I promise, only it's going to take 400 million years for the slowing action of the moon's gravitational effect on the earth to make this happen.

I discovered this whilst explaining to Jenny that a year is the time taken for the Earth to orbit the Sun. It seems that her poor Geography never led her to a physics lesson...which left her ample time for Maths, so every silver cloud eh?

Anyway back to the 26hr day and I can see a lot of problems here as we will need new clocks that go to thirteen and Kiefer Sutherland in very old age or course will be in 26 and not 24 anymore and the year I explained to Jenny will be the same length but will have more hours. Will we still need BST? Who knows?

We had a delivery timed for 10:18hrs this morning from a courier and it turned up bang on time... So just as we have finally managed to be precise with our 24 hour day, it's all going to change.

I wonder if 400 million years is a long enough lead time?

More tomorrow, if I have time...

Tubular Bells - Mike Oldfield

Whats the first LP* you ever bought? Mine was the glorious 'Tubular Bells' on 13th November 1976, when I was just 14... Recorded some 40 years ago this year, this 17 million selling record, sounds just as fresh as it did when I first heard it on scratchy vinyl all those years ago and then hissy as it did on my cassette bought in WHSmiths (when it sold records), in Stratford-upon-Avon.

(*LP, Cassette, Album and Record are terms used by people born before 1970 when music wasn't on CD's or MP3)...

Listening to it again still makes my hair stand on end, as it's simply wonderful and for the poor Mr. Oldfield was a bar so high, he never matched or surpassed it... a bit of a Moonlanding in Neil Armstrong's case...

My meagre achievement's in comparison make me wonder if I've had my 'Tubular' moment or I still have it to come... funny that MY drinking days came BEFORE my achievements and that Mike and Neil's were AFTER theirs...

Makes you wonder eh? Now where's my cassette player, and what WAS your first ALBUM?