Just remembered that I really need to thank three people in particular: Michelle Healy, Andrew Townshend and of course, Stacey, my wife.
Michelle has been a good motivator leading into this and a great training partner. She suffered an injury during the event and had to pull up at about 30km. She immediately jumped on the support wagon and got herself to the busiest checkpoint and helped out all afternoon. She would have been extremely disappointed at the time (I was for her) but you wouldn't have known. Go the 100km in September, Michelle!
Andrew has been something of a mentor to me. He listens to my incessant running gibberish and tries to rein me in when I'm doing something stupid. Doesn't succeed very often but at least he tries! Also, he's crewed for the last two ultras and has been a bit like a doctor with an unhelpful patient, but he doesn't let me down. At the 50 miler, he was driving me right to the end, giving me splits, targets and sustenance. I'd like him to run one of these with me but he has a few injury problems of his own right now.
Stacey isn't one for hanging around in the woods with a bunch of nutters at some ungodly hour. She also isn't one for getting up really early and driving to the start of a marathon then hanging around for four hours and looking happy about it. What she is though is quietly proud and supportive. We have our 'discussions' about time spent running as most runners and their spouses do, but I still get to do it. She doesn't even bat an eyelid these days when a new pair of shoes or some other kit appears. Now, if I could only develop some enthusiasm for crewing!
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