SHoka'd by the Power - Kylie Minogue

Ha! I love them! It's like running with springs attached to your feet...What a great invention... a couple of comments - the heel tabs are far too high so they have already been lopped off, and sizing is unfortunately like every other female trainer on the market - FAR TOO NARROW. Still, I'm in 7.5 (a size bigger than my other trainers) and they are just about ok. I tried on the 8 in the shop but it was just longer with no extra width. Why are women's shoes always so narrow?

I had a lovely chat with Katherine on the way - she is ace and I think she'll do well in JOGLE. She has the right strategy and a great mental attitude. She is also wearing Hokas (we looked like the tweeny twins), but the mens' version. Wise move as they are wider - think I would have done the same if they had had my size!

So, the verdict so far is they are great. I don't think I would do all my running in them because they are so spongy I think they would probably aggravate my achilles, but for an addition to the collection they are fabulous, just a tad pricey atm even with my generous discount from Derby Runner.

I'm now in the car helping Rory and escaping the cold (it's bitter out there!)... Rory thinks I'll hop out again for another 10 miler but I'm thinking I quite like it in the warm :-)

The Lamb lies down on Broadway - Genesis

Six of our JOGLERs are with us this weekend to have a go at two days of the JOGLE Ultra course in preparation for next year's event. Katherine, Phil, Tom, Tim, Sean and Ian are running a couple of back-to-back 47 milers as a bootcamp weekend.

Jenny is out there too, wearing her (S)Hoka shoes, along with Katherine to road test 'em for the next newsletter (you can guess what I think already!).

The lambs have already fallen into the 'too fast' approach and it's a good job that David Miles, our JOGLE Ultra Veteran is here to help...

More later...

Pretty Woman - Roy Orbison

What's the world coming to when they are letting women box at the Olympics, Seb Coe, what are you thinking. Now, I'm not adverse to a bit of Women's Mud Wrestling or Beach Volleyball but Boxing? Sorry, I prefer my women without boxing gloves and gum shields thanks. And yes, I know women are equal to men and they can do whatever men can do they want but per-lease, this is getting ridiculous...

More ridiculous is that they are being asked to Box in skirts! Whoever came up with that one? Apparently it's to make them look more feminine when they fight... Maybe the men should wear them too... I reckon Audley Harrison has for years. Maybe my mate, Andy Chapman, should follow suit with his boxing bout in February.

C'mon mate, Man-up, get your skirt on! Go with your handbag...

The Sound of Bread - Bread

Have you ever tried giving up your daily slice of yummy bread? I have now for about 10 days (it might be longer but I have lost count and lost the will to live) and I must admit to really missing my doorstep sized butties.

It's all part of yet another personality test, I am sure... it's me versus my resolve, just as it was with cigarettes, alcohol and even dare I say, Walkers Salt & Vinegar Crisps (the hardest of the lot to do, I add).

How long it will last, who knows... some of my abstentions are nearly 18 years old, so watch this space. All I do know is that I feel a lot less bloaty without all that supermarket loaf rising agent in me. The only 'good' bread is Sir Michael's Own. We'll see how good I am resisting that one very soon no doubt.

What do you like far too much, that you don't allow yourself to have?

More tomorrow...

Let's get ready to rumble - PJ and Duncan

The trouble with marathon number bashing is that it doesn't do your training any good. Even though I am really pleased with my recent times and am enthused about getting meaner and faster over 26.2 or 26.2+ miles - there is only SO much you can recover until your next big run.

In my case... Thursday this week and a 25 people only race in Staffordshire courtesy of David Bayley.

It will be later in the year when I get time to re-appraise my training and get myself back into shape for a good go at 2012.

I'm looking forward to it as well, and that's what really counts... bring it on!

Close to the Edge - Yes

It was yesterday as we ran right long the edge of Beachy Head in the marathon. I must say that I really enjoyed the day out and only 7 days after the RRR50 I still managed my best time on this course by 8 minutes clocking a 4:35:40. Nowhere near Slaterchops 3:54 but a very good for me at this stage of my season as that's 28 marathons this year.

Even better than the running was the stopover at JOGLE chef Ann White's house, with post race jacuzzi, I hasten to add. Never have the legs and stomach felt so good after a race.

More hill training for me and I can get a lot nearer that 4hr mark next year on this one I believe.

More tomorrow...

Sleepwalk - ULTRAvox

If you can't sleep, you can get loads done... well that's what I found out on a night of insomnia brought on trying to sleep next to Jenny doing her Sally Gunnell hurdling impersonations. Talk about legs going everywhere. And you know what it's like - once you are awake, there's nothing you can do about it.

Also at 3am there's not much to distract you, apart from old re-runs of The Professionals and Nightcops - it seems that insomniacs are obsessed by the Police? They can't be interested in much as nothing else is on...

By 11am, I had done my day... finished my accounts and had even started helping with the VAT, that I had promised to do. Tonight, I'm going hurdling... and Jen's getting up at 3am... well I can dream. The Queen of the Morning was meant to be up at 7am on a hill session... Even I knew that wouldn't happen!

More tomorrow from our Beachy Head Marathon prep!

Let there be love - Simple Minds

Pearl came out with a blinder last night playing an on-line spelling game. When asked to spell Bridge she put Brij. Not a simple mistake but a well considered attempt using her phonetically focused mind. It did get me thinking that we spend an awful amount of time wondering how to spell words and get caught out more than often with some of the nastier words we choose you say rather than use.

The i before e, except after c is in fact wrong as there are more words with them arranged e before I than there are following the rule.

So I reckon Pearl (6) has a good point... who cares how it's written as long as it makes sense. I got phonetically (nearly got it) and focused (put 2 s's) wrong but you still would have understood what I had written. Maybe it's time to edit our language... maybe time to get the Cissors out and make some cut-backs.

Wot do u think?

Kick - INXS

Just shows you how things during a 50 miler can go from bad, to worse, to great all in the space of 10 hours or so. Yes, I am referring to the Rollercoaster ride of Rowbotham's Round Rotherham 50 miler.

I woke at 4am feeling decidedly duff and to be honest would have gone back to bed but when you tell folk that you are going to do a race and you a bit under the spot-light, well you just have to get on and do it. I felt a lot worse at 35 miles and had a few minutes out to cool down in a park.

Talk about relief... and it did me wonders. I had to overtake lots of people I had already passed and ran all the way to the finish. So not a bad one really and I re-learned to not listen to my negative thoughts and thanks to my walkman for keeping me going. Tunes always help I've found.

Roundabout - YES

It's been very exciting today, and you might remember that Jenny and I went and ran the 48 mile Round the Rock ULTRA on Jersey earlier this year. Well we liked the whole race that much that we are making it part of the UK ULTRArace Championship next year. Don't get me wrong, it's not our race and we are not organising it - we just loved the race and it's a great way of supporting the race and it's organisers by encouraging runners from the mainland to go and take part.

It's an ace race...

As is RRR50 where I am tomorrow... if you are running please say hello. Hopefully my legs are up to 50 miles out in the sun!

More tomorrow...

A Thousand Miles - Vanessa Carlton

Keppel's Column

Well it's 50 miles really that I am thinking about on Saturday at Rowbotham's Round Rotherham. Been there done it and got the T-Shirt loads of times but it really matters every year this one. It's always a great indication of my fitness especially as I head into my winter training.

Last year's 9.52 will be a bit of a bugger to emulate but try I will to get somewhere near that sort of time. I ran with Chris Whistler in 2010 and with his post M2M ULTRA legs feeling tired, we should be a good match for getting round, especially as I know the route. There will be no passengers running ahead in the last mile for glory this year...oh no!

Oh and no lost leaders whinging when they have gone the wrong way after just a couple of miles... As ever, we'll see but I am looking forward to a good day out with my mate!

More tomorrow...

Let you fingers do the walking - Neil Young

We got our Yellow Pages today thru our letter box today. And it's just over A5 in size... another sign of modern day cut backs I'm sure. Now I worked on yellow pages back in the 80's as one of my first ever jobs (£1.75 per hour, I hasten to add), and Yellow Pages was a huge operation back then. It really was the source of all company information and EVERYBODY who was ANYBODY had a listing... I drew the adverts that went from Skip-hire adverts to Loft converters... in a studio with six people used Cowgum to stick down the text. By the end of the day, we were all high as a kite. Heady days!

Thirty years on and our Yellow Pages went straight in the bin and if I want to know where to get my loft converted or hire a skip, I will let my fingers do the 'tapping' and search the interweb to find a local service that we might need.

Only upside is that it's easier to tear in half nowadays...

More tomorrow...

Knowledge - Operation Ivy

Just how much information are we mean't to know nowadays and how much do we have to 'Google' is a coversation that Jenny and I had today (oh how we live it up!). But it's so true... discuss anything and if you need the info all you do is get out your iPhone and 'Google' away. For instance I already know that Mt Everest is 8850m high but if you didn't believe me or wanted to check me out you could 'Google' Mt Everest and Wiki would give you that info - thing is why bother to learn in the first place.

The Times crossword is a lot easier when you can 'look up' the answers rather than know an obscure play or song. I mean what's wrong with not knowing but knowing where to look?'

Now when I was a lad, we had Log tables for doing our maths homework and wrote with fountain pens and used a library for researching subjects, which we then set to memory. Maybe education back then was more of a memory test and mental knowledge was power. Nowadays it's how you we get, share and store the info that is power and hence the root to success. The internet age has moneytised information and we are slaves to our extended gigabyte brains.

Where will it all end... oh hold on I'll 'Google' it...

Perfect Day - Varoius Artists

Jenny and Charlie Sharpe

More like a very long day really - but a very rewarding one for Jenny and myself at ULTRArace. It all went very much to plan and the whole day was most enjoyable to organise. The Nottingham ULTRA was awesome... good job we had our friends Andy, Katie, Rachel and Killers to give us great support at the checkpoints as well as some awesome cakes which went down very well indeed with the runners.

We were so lucky with the day and there's something special about Castle Road and the finish of this event... it's just electric at the finish line and there's a great buzz from the people watching too.

Everyone was in awe of Charlie Sharpe's amazing 3hrs and 43mins winning time... puts us all to shame... and he's only 22! And we were in awe too of Steve Smith and Trinity Booth who have run so well during our first ULTRArace Championship... enjoy it guys. You deserve it!

Now if the 194 photos have loaded, I am finally off to bed!

More tomorrow...

The Working Hour - Tears for Fears

Hemlock Stone 1910 (not ten past 7)...

More like the working 10 hours today as we put down the rest of the arrows and tape for The Nottingham ULTRA... did it rain? Of course it bloody well did... luckily the Duracell Bunny Girl ran a lot of the first part of the course and did the Papplewick section of the route in terrible running conditions. It was tough for me too trying to keep the Chevy's windows from steaming up! Talk about hard work.

The rest of the course wasn't hard work, it was just real fun to run on and as I said earlier in the week, I am gutted that I will never run this race for real as the course is just brilliant imo.

Let's see if the 150 runners think so tomorrow... more then.

Pull up to the Bumper - Grace Jones

We've been out marking The Nottingham ULTRA course today and have been wondering at times whether the people in the cars behind us are wanting to be part of our conversations. I say that because at times various drivers were just a paper's thickness behind us!

Now this might be that I am driving just within the speed limit or that I am just becoming an OAD (old aged driver)... but it's plain daft how some of the driver's we saw were going about their business. As runners, we rely on how people drive and it's totally out of our control... and that's always been a worry to me.

I think I have 8 of my 9 lives left after a narrow miss in Stratford-upon-Avon, many years ago?

Luckily, I am still not part of the 'Hi-VIZ Groovy Gang... let's hope it stays that way.

More tomorrow, from a forecasted wet day in Nottingham...

The Whistler - Jethro Tull



Papplewick Pumping Station

We've been out on the Nottingham ULTRA course today spraying arrows out on the road to make sure that all you runners manage to follow the route from Blidworth to Nottingham Castle. We did a good third of the course today taking in some stunning scenery and great trail around the Burnt Stump and Papplewick area.
The route really is stunning and one I am itching to have ago at in the next couple of days. I will never be in the race itself... it can't be but it's one that really captures my imagination.

If the weather is good, it will be even better at the weekend for the 150 or so runners.

Can't tell you how much I am looking forward to the RRR50 and a day out with Mr Whistler & Co... happy days.

More tomorrow

Enter Sandman - Metallica

We've been in Sandstorms today sadly in Morocco but up in Filey in Yarrrrkshire. Talk about dry landscape, the soils just being washed away. This place needs rain, lots of it too... maybe they can have whats in store for our Nottingham ULTRA runners at the weekend as the weather is not looking brilliant right now for Sunday.

Better news is that I can finally feel my quads following the Mablethorpe Marathon on Sunday and a few jogs will get me sorted for RRR50 in ten days time.

We are back tomorrow and route marking for the next few days... can't be bad eh?

More tomorrow...

Big Country - Big Country

My word a couple of years go by quick... and we are planning some JOGLE tester days again.

A couple of 46 milers should sort out the class of 2012. It was amazing how much this weekend helped our original JOGLE runners and how much it helped Jenny in her GWR preparations.

I will be giving some of it a go as I start to go back into some heavy training for my own 2012 events I have planned.

As for today, legs have been very hurty after yesterday's marathon and I lost a lot of skin off my bum in the gym doing sit-ups, so can't sit down too well atm!

More tomorrow...

Message in a bottle - The Police

It was at he Mablethorpe Marathon today. I did a 3:58 for my third 26.2 in five days... so I am really pleased with my time. Shows what you can do if you really try. 'Cos boy I tried... as it was f'kin hot.

I mean 29 degrees hot. I even got rid of my cap at 20 miles. Talk about thirsty, 3 milkshakes, 3 cups of tea, 2 pints of squash and a bottle of Diet Coke later I still haven't had a wee!  Not sure that I will keep you posted on that one though.

Hopefully it will lead onto a good time at Rotherham in two weeks... let's see eh?

Son of my Father - Chicory Tip

Thirty years ago, I saw Tangerine Dream at The Assembly Rooms in Derby. It really was THE place to see bands in the East Midlands - well there and Rock City anyway. Today George (son of mine) is on that same stage with his band Toxic Federation . Back then I could never have for seen anything like this ever happening and I sure am one proud Dad today.

George and the lads really deserves the accolade... they have worked SO hard to get to where they are. That's right on the cusp of making it. Their next album is in HMV on pre-order for release on October 17th.

Let's hope it happens for them!

More tomorrow post Mablethorpe Marathon.