. Field events: runners made hay while the sun shone Two hours of merciless sun in the station car park elapsed before I was forced to seek urinary relief at the Railway Hotel. Which was deserted. I sidled to the gents, where bizarrely, a loudspeaker

bars, man could run to the moon. And, once the first human body has been bullied and cajoled across the 250,000 miles to our planet’s satellite, it will only be a matter of time before David Bedford is appointed Race Director and the event

from the Jordan Desert Cup by Christmas.However, there’s rather more to the event than the description suggests. The most alarming of its many alarming features is that it’s non-stop. So within a few hours, the runners will be strung out sparsely across

that wouldn’t invite the derision of our friends and relations.The fear was fuelled by a meeting in the Yorkshire Grey, at which James Henderson, a veteran of last year’s event in Mauritania, described his experiences with a chilling matter-of-factness. Some

later. Lord Sutch was a national treasure, and Man v Horse – not to mention the next election – will be a duller event without him.I’m sure he would have approved of the Numbskulls, Britain’s most exclusive running club. Back in 1984, two

my name down.This monstrous event seemed to deserve some kind of fund-raising effort, so initially I chose the cause that was closest to my heart – the provision of new premises for the Friends of the Western Buddhist Order. But if I’ve learned

and sacrifice. Blackford, they said, you must run up-country, into the very heart of darkness, and persuade Seaton to give himself up.For days, I jogged along forest tracks with no sustenance except two pieces of string and a sackful of unpronounceable medicines

to races in a specially-designed mobile hammock and was only woken by his coach at the start line. Sometimes he would even fall asleep during races, and would often have no recollection of an event other than a few confused and surreal images involving

is a brand-new and absolutely unique event, wait – you’re going to love this – for dogs and their owners. And best news of all? It’s in Surrey! So you won’t need to drag yourself halfway around the world to slog through some god-forsaken wilderness

– the Marathon des Sables. (Incidentally, given the recent events in Casablanca, will it ever be run again?)Anyway, I couldn’t train. To put one foot in front of the other was to experience the martyrdom of St Sebastian while having one’s lungs scraped out with a