Yesterday I met with Richard Donovan, the Race Director of the recent World Marathon Challenge, in which the participants ran seven marathons in seven days on the seven different continents. The final marathon was in Sydney, which is why Richard was here. Richard is also the world record holder for running seven marathons on the seven different continents, having completed this task on a previous occasion in under five days.

It was great to speak with Richard on a variety of topics related to running. He will soon be running across the US as a training jaunt ahead of a subsequent run completely across Antarctic continent via the South Pole. He will be the first to do so. He also organizes the North Pole Marathon which will take place in a few months. And Tony Mangan will be running that one.

I believe the World Marathon Challenge will be an annual event. It’s one I’m certainly interested in doing one year. Not that I’d be keeping up with the average pace of this year’s winner, which was around 3:30 per marathon. These days that would be a decent pace for me for a single marathon, let alone for seven marathons in seven days with all the flights, jet lag, and sleep deprivation in between.

This morning I did some more sprints, this time up a hill. Once again, the Achilles didn’t object at all. If it can handle hill sprints, it can probably handle anything.

On This Day

Jan 31, 2012

Distance today = 46.60 km; Total distance = 1574.22 km; Location = Hamurana, NZ –  38 01.600′ S, 176 12.948′ E; Start time = 0826, Finish time = 1513

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/146048668

Firstly, in my tired state, it appears that yesterday I wrote over the top of the previous day’s blog, and forgot to change the date from Jan 29 to 30. Unfortunately, I think the blog for Jan 29 is now gone forever, but I have at least corrected the date for Jan 30.

I have also reverted to the link as you see above, as I was informed (by the very capable Jimbo) that not everyone could view the link as I had it set out. Hopefully everyone can now see all my daily run data details.

OK, so now to today’s run. I started near the famous Waiotapu Thermal Wonderland, and will hopefully have a video related to this area downloaded later. There is steam coming out of the ground in thousands of locations, with occasional boiling mud.

I had a bit of sore tendon behind my right knee today, so I experimented a bit and found that it only hurt when I was running slowly, but not when I picked up the pace a bit (or walked). A bit of a no-brainer, really. I simply increased my pace – not that it was fast; just faster than I have been running – and I had a good run as a result.

I passed through Rotorua, with a quick stop for some photos for the local newspaper, and headed off to the northern end of the lake, where I was picked up by the support vehicle in Hamurana. Tomorrow it’s on to Tauranga.

Today marked the end of the first month of my run around the world. The 1574 km covered so far is ahead of my expectations, so I will probably take it a little easier during the final week in New Zealand. Distances will be more like what I did today.

Jan 31, 2013

Distance today = 51.60 km; Total distance = 15,794.33 km; Location = Aliseda, Spain (5 km west of) – 39 25.835′ N, 06 44.707′ W; Start time = 0941, Finish time = 1750

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/268050396

It was quite eerie on the road this afternoon. I was running through a region of olive trees, with no farm animals around. I stopped at one point when there were no cars and listened. It was unbelievably quiet. The loudest noise I could detect was the pulse beating in my ears. No wind in the trees, no sheep bleating in the distance, no birds or insects, and no human-made sounds at all. It was a real pleasure to experience something so unusual, especially as the sun was shining brightly and the afternoon was pleasantly warm.

Otherwise, it was a reasonably uneventful day. The road is excellent for running. Although a highway, there is very little traffic on it, and when there is, the shoulder affords me more than enough room.

My legs were still a bit sore. I suspect they are suffering from the effects of my extra Christmas kilos. Once the weight goes, the legs should do it much easier.