Its count down time!

Hi Everyone,
What a start to the year its been. After all the excitement then frustration with the snow I left the cold behind and went on my hols to Oz. My wifes from Perth so it we went back for a couple of weeks to enjoy the sun, sea and see the rele's as they say over there.
The weather was amazing with the top temperature hitting 42.7 deg!! Absolute quality. This was perfect for me as I needed to get some hot weather training in as it is only 8 weeks until I fly out to Morocco to start the 25th edition of the world famous Marathon Des Sables.
This year as it is a special 25th anniversary the organisers have decided to add a few miles on and round the KM's upto 250 which equates to 155 miles. The addition only really means an extra 5 miles over the 7 days but its an extra 5 miles over 300ft sand dunes, rocks whilst carrying your 10kg backpack and running in upto 55deg heat. And I can not wait to get out there.
I've got a feeling that this years run is going to be harder than when I did it in 2007. Although I have more experience now at doing ultra's, and my body is probably better equiped to deal with it, I went into the run in 2007 thinking it was going to be toughest thing ever and actually really enjoyed all of it. The hardest part was the last 15 miles of the long day which was 46 miles in total (that took us 12 hours to complete).
What I love though is the challenge. Unless I get really injured my body will cope as it is the most amazing bit of kit you own and can be pushed to silly limits and recover. I kind of hope that at some time during the run it gets mentally tough, like really hard. That's when you test yourself.
And I've bought enough quality trance recently to keep me smiling while i'm out there. Imagine being in the middle of the desert with a few people around you including a good mate. Nothing to think about apart from running from A-B and you stick on some cracking tunes. What a rush.
Have a good weekend.
Johnny