Follow 880...

Ok - I'm just a little bit excited about the Marathon des Sables.. I leave from the UK tomorrow and today is sorting out day.. I have a medical to attend , I get an ECG there and need to take the results to the MdS officials... Haircut - blatantly!! ... Rucksack and luggage packing - must not forgot anything... the lists have been made! Tidy up flat a little and do these last online bits and pieces for you guys... all done in a careful, slow paced and organised way so I don't panic!! ;)

So - when I am away you will be able to 'follow' me online at http://www.darbaroud.com/index_uk.php and my number is 880! This will be avaliable when the race starts and not before!.. The race starts Sunday 3rd April. Currently Morocco is 1 hour behind our clocks in the UK. There will also be video clips and photos on the site at the end of each day's session.

The race will also be televised although details at the moment are sketchy at best... Stations like TV5, Sky & Eurosport will be doing updates similar to the website... information about this can be found here: http://www.darbaroud.com/detail.php?pub=441&langue=en

I hope to get an email out every day which my good friend Rob will post on here and link to my various social networking sites... Otherwise I will be blogging every day and will upload that as soon as I POssibley can after the event - we actually finish on Saturday April 9th! And i'll be coming back to the UK on April 11th...

Party: For those of you who can get to it I'm have a fund-raising / homecoming party on April 15th.. It's at the Chapel Bar, 29a Penton St, London - nearest Tube, ANGEL. It's from 9pm til 3am and a fiver to get in ,,,, ALL proceeds are going to my charity - The Meningitis Trust! To raise the total a little more...

That's it!.. THANKS for all your support and generous donations - I'll be printing out ALL the comments from my photo on Facebook HERE and taking it with me to remind me how supportive you guys are so please add something on there... and see you on the other side X

Last minute things...

So I only have a few days to go now until my flight to Morocco.. Over the last few days I've been stuffing in some extra food and cutting down on my mileage.. Last weeks total miles was about 67 which is quite a dip - this week however will be hardly any at all!... Must rest those muscles! Mind you I am still taking the large rucksack to work with about 10kg of weight in it.

My impression of what my race number will look like

I had a slight scare - toothache on waking Sunday morning! So plans have changes a little.. I got it checked out today at the dentist but apparently (and hopefully) its just sinusitis.. Quick change of diet should put that right. Si I have three nights left in the UK... and tomorrow my last day at work! I'm so glad I put that extra day in because there are plenty of things to do in it.. Bag packing - hair cut - medical to name but a few...
So all the training - all the preparation is now done.. no more more time to fit anything in!.. A quick session at the gym tomorrow and maybe Wednesday but that's it! I keep looking at everything laid out on my bedroom floor wondering if I have forgotten anything... well... we'll soon find out!! ... LOL!
Charity donations at time of writing = £7,175!! Any amazing amount of money.. if you have not given yet and wish to - you can do so here: http://www.justgiving.com/mds2011 you can also read more about the Meningitis Trust here: http://www.meningitis-trust.org

I'll be doing a LAST POST before I got with all the 'follow' details on it so please come back for more then - thanks for reading ...

Ray :)
x