I haven’t done as much training as I should have, I haven’t prepared enough, but when do I ever? There is always more training you can do, always more you can do to prepare. I have run distances up to a marathon, I have cycled up to 50km and I have had a one hour kayak lesson, not ideal for a 67km run, 175km cycle and 15km kayak – but it’s better than nothing. The Kayak training has made me feel more confident, my instructor told me some good points to help me conserve energy and help me prepare for the long distance and time at sea. I am pretty confident up to half way, once I have done a half marathon, 15 km Kayak and 100km cycle anything else is guess work. It will become increasingly a mental fight then, my body will want to give in, I will question my sanity, I will question my ability, I will question why I have done this. I have been there before, in the Sahara, in Afghanistan, in the UK even, on my various events over the years and so far, I’ve always come through. I will dig deep, think of the charity cause and I will come away knowing I put in everything I possibly could.
Will I finish? Well, that’s the point of this event, I just don’t know. Yes I want to, I will do all I can, but I can’t guarantee I will. It might be an injury, it might be falling into the sea, it might be a puncture that gets me and of course, it might be sheer fatigue. I will, as ever, dig deep and do my best to give my all and fight through the pain – I don’t care about my position in The Race, I just want to come away having completed it. If I do that I’ll be happy.