Sahara Desert anyone?

Matt Sims. After the midweek newsletter about our latest Couch to 5kers, there's an emphasis on distance in this edition. We have an update on Matt Sims competing in the Marathon des Sables. That's just the 251k (156 miles) in the Sahara Desert ! Then we have Tara Lambert in Ireland, competing in the Dublin 2 Belfast Ultra. A mere 172k (107 miles ). After that, Tara is keen to improve her 100 mile PB. Not an expression you hear very often. Is there anything our members won't attempt ? We also have a Track and Field update, with, amongst others, Lewis Byng taking upon where he left off last year. He currently tops the UK rankings, is 4th best in Europe and 7th on the all-time list in the UK. There's also a report on the Regency 10k, Manchester marathon and Solihull half. Good luck to those of you competing in Brighton at the weekend. Indeed, good luck to any of you competing anywhere ! Best Wishes David Jones. The Marathon des Sables. Marathon des Sables. Report - Matt Sims and David Jones. At the time of writing, Matt has completed 4 stages. Yesterday's stage was the longest at 76k (47 miles) He seems to be getting stronger as the race goes on. For the first stage he was 130th in his age category, for the 2nd stage he was 94th, 77th for the 3rd stage and yesterday 58th. Details of the stages completed to date, together with Matt's times are as follows : Stage 1 - 32.2k - 4:54.37 - 6.54k/hr Stage 2 - 32.5k - 5:51.05 - 5.48k/hr Stage 3 - 37.1k - 5:37.44 - 6.61k/hr Stage 4 - 76.3k - 12:43.17 - 6.01k/hr Total 178.1k - 29:06.43 - 6.11k/hr Matt's daily blog. Day 1 : Travel over here was hell! 17.5 hours before we got to camp including an 8 hour coach trip. We arrived at night to a tent that had collapsed. We have a tent with 9 men and a 1 female, given that that this is an environment where the toilet facilities are, to say the least, basic, I have a lot of sympathy with the lady. Yesterday was spent mostly waiting around doing kit checks and medicals. It seem to take forever, nerves increasing. Yesterday we were catered for, so today was the first day of eating from a bag. I started early this morning for the first stage. I have to say it was a bit emotional given the year of training that preceded it. The temperature seemed to increase today which was ironic. The nights have been freezing, the biggest surprise. Today's stage was 32km and fairly straightforward. Not too many hills and a few dunes. I decided to moderate the enthusiasm and let everyone go at the start and manage my own race. It has paid off and I am feeling ok. Now for some food and rest...tomorrow includes 13k of dunes! Day 2: I can only describe today…