Marathon - my 'home' race - six times. I set my personal best of 3:14 in London in 2010, and my personal worst of 6:28 at the Medoc Marathon in 2008 - the 24 'aid' stations serving red wine ad strong cheese definitely slowed me down. In 2005 I was second

Stage 1 : 33KThe first 13K of the stage was on the flat. The ground was uneven but firm and I was feeling fine. In the distance were towering sand dunes that shimmered like silk; they turned out to be the next part of the route and stunning though

Stage 5: 42KToday was the marathon stage of the race. I managed to run the first half - I'd become bored with walking and wanted to test myself, but at the second checkpoint, at the 24K-mark, and with the temperature hovering around 50C, I took a

Stage 2: 38KThe sun usually rises here just before 6am but there was no sunrise this morning. We woke to a sandstorm, just what we didn't need to kick off a 38K stage. I'm sharing a tent with Jay Batchen, who has done the race eight or so times: he

. The first 12K were relatively flat, albeit stony; then we came to the dunes and stayed on them for most of the day. I actually managed some running today but I'm still only really keeping up with the walkers who aren't stopping at every checkpoint. You can

At just 17.5K, the final stage of the 26th Marathon des Sables was the shortest by far but still proved to be challenging. It was another hot day - although once the temperature rises above 40C it's hard to differentiate between simply hot

started to train for the race: now where did I put that corkscrew? So you want to run the Medoc Marathon? The next race – on September 12, 2009 – will mark the 25th anniversary of the race, so expect places to fill even more rapidly than usual. To find

You've followed Triathlete's World Editor Alison's Marathon des Sables blog over the last week, and now she's back with some stunning pictures which show off the dramatic backdrop to this epic week-long desert race (and her bandaged feet...).

become part of running folklore. Race website: www.comrades.comSpar/Mercury Women’s 10K, Durban (June)2009 Date: tbc This is one of six in a national series of women’s 10K races, and by far the biggest of the series. Around 16,000 women – and a few cross

word for cheesecake is ostaka.  Gothenburg Half-Marathon (May)2009 Date: May 16Attracting around 40,000 runners and 200,000 noisy spectators, this is one of the world’s biggest half-marathons in one of Scandinavia’s most beautiful cities. Next year