I'm in year 3 of a 3 and a half build up the the Comrades, which I intend on running in June 2007... 54 miles over hilly terrain in the heat of South Africe...sounds fantastic huh!

Year 1 (2004) was my first attempt at an ultra.. The Dartmoor Discovery. 32 miles of hills in Dartmoor. I finished in 6.11

Year 2 (2005) was Dartmoor Discovery again, which I finished in 5.35 winning 1st LV40. Six week later I ran the 50 Challenge in Kent, which is actually 52.4 miles (back to back marathons). It was a really hot summers day and I finished this event in 10.15, winning 1st Lady.

So I now have experience of the hills (Dartmoor) and the distance and heat (Kent). My next stage is the full distance over hills, or as near as I can get it. So this year, as well as doing Dartmoor again (going for sub 5.30) and 50 Challenge (going for sub 10 hours), I hope to do London to Brighton (if it's on, because the race is in doubt at the moment). This will give me the distance over hills, but almost definitely not the heat... I could run with lots of layers on I guess....

Impressive. Only been running 6 months so Comrades is out of my reach at the moment... Don't you have to qualify as well?

However I'm looking at the Thames Meander 54 and/or Kent 50 Challenge for 2007/2008. But slightly scared about the commitment to training needed (time-wise, not effort-wise). I'm discovering that even just training for a marathon takes a lot of time, so at the moment I'm having trouble figuring out how I'll be able to fit in training for an ultra...

My marathon pb is 3.40 so I easily qualify for Comrades.

Training for an ultra can be done alongside marathon training... that's what I do. I run about 5 marathons a year and use a couple of them as training runs, maybe adding a couple of miles before the race. I haven't ever 'trained' further than 28 miles.

But its also all the more important with ultras to get the nutrition right and the correct amount of rest in your schedule.

Ran belfast last year and that ended up as an ultra!

How come.... did you get lost?

There was a bomb on the course so all but the first 20 runners did 27.9 miles!

Dare I ask.... what happened to the other 20 runners?

I'm going to do Dartmoor too Trin

and I'll be at the Kent 50 Challenge but really don't expect to run further than 26.2 miles . .

one Ultra's enough for me

When I saw the title of this thread I knew who would have started it. <G>.

anyway, I foolishly managed to get persuaded to run Dartmoor Discovery this year. So, this year I have also planned to run my first marathon (about a month before Dartmoor) and I have just completed my first 20Mile for which my legs no longer work

LOL Hope you're legs have started to respond to command by now AC