CHARITY AUCTION NIGHT

11th OCTOBER 2008

THE THREE CROWNS

ASHURST WOOD

I'd like to say a sincere 'thank you' to everyone that supported the auction night.

A lot of hard work and planning went in to it and the end result is simply staggering. After adding everything up, the night raised an incredible £6980.00 for Mencap.

I hope everyone that came down had a good night, the turnout was fantastic despite the horrendous traffic and I can't tell you how much I appreciate the support shown by every single person that made the effort to come down and get drunk with us. (It's all part of the training!)

I'd like to thank the management and all the staff of The Three Crowns for making everyone feel so welcome, for the food which was fantastic and for your co-operation which made everything run so smoothly.

Thanks to the band Euphoria, please visit their site which is on my Links page. If you need a band for an event book these guys, totally proffessional, sounded fantastic and got everyone involved. Thanks also to Terry for doing such a top job hosting the auction, it was excellent mate, thank you.

The idea for this night was put to me by my business partner Paul Curtis and then as soon as we got Zoe on-board it all started to come together. Thanks to Paul and Zoe for the amount of work you two put in, you two are the ones that deserve the credit for how well it all went off. Cheers.

Thanks to Patrick for doing the door, very much appreciated mate thank you.

Thanks to Toni and Sarah for all their hard work on the night and in the planning and for putting up with Paul and I stressing out about it in the days leading up to it! Thanks to Callum and Jon for doing such a top job selling the raffle tickets - the boys done good. Thanks to Mum and Dad for all the bit's you got for the auction and for the raffle and for all your support.

Thanks to everyone who donated items or put us in contact with people to get bit's for the auction, we had some amazing stuff so thank you for making it such a great display.

Finally thanks to everyone that was there, your support on the night was great - when I'm having bad times in the desert, thinking of this night and the people that were there supporting me will push me on. Training for this race is very lonely at times but somehow it doesn't feel as lonely when you know you've got that many people supporting you, hope to see you all again soon.

Daz.

BEACHY HEAD MARATHON 25.10.08

Despite managing to get hardly any running in before this race because of injury and commitments to the auction, all in all it was quite a successful race for me.

Four of the 2009 Mencap MdS team were running, myself, Lewis, Jon and Mick and it was a good chance to test some of the gear that we'll be using in the big one in March. We all had around 6-7kgs in our packs and we were all adopting the run/walk strategy as suggested by Marc from 'the endurace coach' whereby we run the flat and downhill and walk up the hills. There are a serious amount of hills on this course aswell as 200 odd steps, gates, stiles and other obstacles.

All four of us finished, I got round in 5hrs 46mins which I was happy with as I'd set myself a target of 6 hours. By far the biggest boost though was how well the knee stood up to it and recovered afterwards. So it seems that - touch wood - everything is back on track and going in the right direction again.

THAMES TROT 50 MILE ULTRA MARATHON 07.02.09

I have to be honest and say that I've been dreading this race since I signed up for it! 50 miles along the Thames Path from Oxford to Henley with a time limit didn't fill me with confidence but I also really wanted to be able to get this distance under my belt to give me a psychological boost for the long day in the desert which can be up to 52 miles. The only slight problem is that it was double the biggest distance I've ever run before!

When myself and fellow Mencap team-mate Jon arrived at Oxford first thing we did on leaving the station was almost deck it straight away on the ice and snow which had fallen heavily the night before, the race was in danger of being cancelled and was only officially declared 'on' at 3pm that afternoon. So, 50 miles on snow and ice in temperatures not forecast to rise above freezing all day, it was sounding easier by the minute!

We were joined later that evening by another team-mate, Lewis, arriving just as we were tucking into to our pizza and pint of Carlsberg, apparently it's what all the top athletes fuel themselves with before a 50 mile run! Next morning our organisational skills were in full flow as per normal, resulting in us three missing the start and eventually getting going 15 minutes after everyone else! We weren't really sure what to expect as this was double our previous longest run so we just played it by ear as we went, cautious that there was a very long way to go and it was going to be a very long day.

At around 24 miles I turned my left ankle quite badly but managed to run that off, then had a real problem with my right ankle, probably due to over-compensating to protect the other one, unfortunately this one didn't ease up for the rest of the race so the second 25 mile weren't the most comfortable but it was good to realise what you can push yourself through when you just get your head down and get on with it.

We all finished in just about twelve hours which I was very happy with, good to get a really long day in and still be fairly ok and other than a swolen ankle which I'm sure is nothing to worry about, losing some more toe nails - including one which had only just grown back from last September! and a nice new set of blisters I actually felt much better than I thought I would today which is the most encouraging part. So far so good......

OFFICIAL RACE NUMBER!

I now have my race number for the marathon des sables, number 611 is the one to watch! This is the number which you will be able to follow on the event website, www.darbaroud.com which will publish daily results and times so you can track my progress, you will also be able to email me during the race and the organisers print off these emails and deliver them to our tents at the end of each day. I will put up full details of how to do this as soon as I have it confirmed. Messages of support and football scores will be massively appreciated and will play a big part of me getting through the inevitable tough times and will provide a welcome break from popping blisters, taping my feet back together and cooking dehydrated Chicken Tikka!