t-1 (13 hours to go) #runthecoast

I am afraid that I can’t compete with Eddie Izzard who did an amazing job of doing his 27 marathons in 27 ish days and raising gazillions for charity. While we are not doing 27 marathons, we are doing 4 double marathons, or 70 parkruns, or 8 marathons. However you define it or package it up, it is still quite a long way. There will be lots of running, some walking, some tantrums, lots of food, beer, and cups of tea and biscuits.
I’m feeling pretty wired and over excited about the run that I am doing over the next 4 days. I am covering 210 miles between Hythe in Kent and Bournemouth in Dorset. The run is entirely along the coast, and includes a few little hills too. The last few weeks have been frantic with us  organising the last details.
I have done radio interview with KMFM, and become a triple ZZZ list celebrity in the tiny world of ultrarunning, and among fairly new runners who keep telling me that I have inspired them. I find that kind of attention a bit odd though – I am not a fast runner, I think most people can do what I do if they want to (and are perhaps stooopid enough), and I can’t particularly see how hammering my body and mind for several days can be seen as anything resembling something that is inspiring.
We have been overwhelmed with the support that we have had from other runners – both from our own running clubs – Serpentine and Maidstone Harriers and Egerton Running Club and also runners who we only know through social media and various Facebook groups such as Ultrarunning Community, and Running the Distance being particularly supportive. Many of them are meeting us and running with us for a few miles along the coast. Others are meeting us and bringing us tea, biscuits, CAKE, and hugs (though I’m personally not sure that I would want to hug one of us smelly sweaty runners after what we will go through each day.
I have been blogging every day on my personal running blog (www.untrainingultrarunner.com/tag/coast) and I will be updating that every day when we finish running for the day. I have also arranged a GPS tracker that will show our progress (updated at 10 minute intervals) around the coast. (This is for the terminally bored or serious running geeks!) http://www.racedrone.net/event/run-the-coast-200 and we will be updating our progress on twitter @donealready using hashtag #runthecoast and if anyone wants to pop down or run with us or bring us cake – then here is our rough timetable (obviously subject to on the day change and subject to our progress).