Yukon Arctic Ultra 2012 (1)

Stories like this are supposed to start with a drunken bet, and I'd love to say this one did aswell. Or they start because you get inspiration from some far flung destination like standing on a terrace in Morocco and deciding I'd go for a little run in the Sahara later in the year. Not sure where this one came from though - it might have been the rather foolish book Judith bought me with a list of mental races around the world, or it could have been the Geographical article in February 2011. Either way, in less than two weeks I'm running the 100 mile category of the Yukon Arctic Ultra, widely regarded as the world's coldest and toughest ultra-marathon.

The facts don't look too re-assuring: 100miles. Arctic. Pulling a pulk. Sleeping outside. Average temperatures between -20 and -40 celcius (they stopped the race last time it got down to -60C, phew). But for some reason, those things just make it all the more appealing.

I'm under no illusions how hard this race is going to be. It's not a run around the Isle of Wight, or the London Marathon - this is going to be bloody hard work, bloody well enjoyable and frankly, I've trained bloody hard for it.

Judith and I debate how long I trained for the Sahara - I reckon it was 12 weeks but she maintains it was only 10. Either way, not as long as I should have done and I'm keen not to make the same mistake twice. This time I've put in the hours and miles to make sure I'm as fit as I can be when the race starts on 4 Feb.