Final pre Marathon des Sables post!

Hello all,

A quick update before I head out to the desert! First off I’d like to thank everyone who's sponsored me. Recently the total sponsorship passed the £2000 mark for the British Red Cross which I’m over the moon with! In many ways for me the fundraising target was almost as daunting as the race itself as my previous fundraising efforts raised around the £400 mark and so £2000 seemed equally extreme as the race, but its been amazing how the event really seems to have captured peoples attention. I know from my now regular chats with Laura (Regional Fundraising Manager) at the British Red Cross that they are incredibly grateful.

I’m now less then a week away from the start line (29th March) and I’ve had an incredible adventure even just to get to this point with newspaper and radio interviews, treadmill marathon fundraising and some unusual races. I'd never have thought all these things were possible when I signed up 2 years ago so I guess I've learnt a lot about life on the way too! I can’t wait for the start now and I’m hoping to be able to post the odd update to my JogBlog when I’m out there.

Whilst the race is on I’m told that it is possible to follow my progress and send messages to me via the race organiser’s website. My race number is 732 and for sending messages I’ve been given the instructions, "friends/family will need to go to the organisers' website - www.darbaroud.com - and look for 'Ecrire au concurrents/write to competitors'. In previous years, this hasn't gone live until the Sunday that the race starts", so if you fancy sending me a message then please do.

Thanks for your support and I’ll write to you all again when I’m back in the UK.

Cheers

Andy