I am very proud and honoured to be named as part of the England team for the 22nd Anglo Celtic Plate 100k, hosted in Perth, Scotland on the 27th March 2016.The race is over the classic distance of 100 kilometres which equates to 62.2 miles and held under UK Athletics rules carrying an IAU Silver label.
The course is set within the North Inch park, adjacent to the Bells Sports Centre, Hay Street, PH1 5HS. It is a tarmac traffic free 2.381km/ 1.479 mile loop, and is run in a clockwise direction. 100k runners will cover a total of 42 laps.
Starting at 7am national ACP teams from England, Scotland and Wales race for the 22nd Anglo Celtic Plate. Each team will have their own designated team area and feed tables in the start finish area and my wife Nicki will be my official support crew. I am very fortunate to have my whole family with me in Perth, and my parents supporting within the park and enjoying day with my children Jasper (8) and Florence (1). Hoping they don't get too bored, I'm sure they will find something exciting to do whilst Daddy runs around and around...and around!
One of the best days during the build up was kit drop day. I must admit to getting a little emotional opening the package from England Athletics. As you can see from the photo the New Balance kit is awesome.
Nutrition-wise I have built my race day plan, with the help and all nutrition supplied by 
XMiles. This has been tried and tested including a full race day mock up with Nicki supporting during my 40 mile training run at the Wimborne 20 X 2 to mirror the race day experience.
Here is a list of what I will be using for race nutrition;
Training has gone to plan hitting all my key training goals since the e-mail confirmation of selection on Sunday 24th January 2016.
My key sessions were the BAC Wednesday marathon session and weekend long runs with some nice double sessions on the Saturday and Sunday. In the time between selection to taper I have been very pleased with my progress and feel I am in a great position to give it my all on race day.
I found a great way to mix up my Saturday runs was to add a Parkrun into the middle of my session, and managed to include trips to Mansfield, Poole, Moors Valley and Blandford Parkruns.
Some of my key build up races are shown below, some being part of longer runs;
| Sun, 14/02/2016 | |
| Sun, 07/02/2016 |
Part 1 easy - long run, Part 1.5 easy - long run, Waiting to start BMVH |
| Sun, 28/02/2016 | |
| Sun, 06/03/2016 | Wimborne 20 X 2 |
| Sun, 13/03/2016 | Lamer Marathon 3rd (90 mile week) Taper Time |
I can't thank my Bournemouth AC teammates enough for their support during my training with special thanks to Jon Sharkey, Jez Bragg and Steve Way who have all parted with advice and joined me in many miles since my selection to the England team.
At the race there will be lap counting and timing will be by chip timing. There was suggestions of live streaming but as yet this has not been confirmed - check out the official website for more info. If you want to keep update on my progress, Nicki will be tweeting from the England aid station on my account @fragilerunner and posting some photos on instagram @fulled.run.
To wrap up, i'm now enjoying the carb-depletion phase of my taper and getting ready for carb-loading before heading to Scotland on Friday and meeting up with my team-mates in Perth. Lets bring the plate back to England!
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