Bournemouth here we come!

Two days to go until Mike Grocott, David Howard and I line up to run the Bournemouth marathon. The route is beautiful, apparently, with coastal views and the opportunity to run both the Boscombe and Bournemouth piers. I have looked at the map and it looks a bit complicated with lots of doubling back, so I hope I am not too hypoxic to work out which way to hobble! It starts at a heady altitude of about 40m above sea level, and appears to end at sea level, so previous altitude training is not likely to help any of us. Mike has been running in America and David has been running in Africa, whereas I have only managed Hampshire and London. Not sure if this will make a difference. I am just aiming to keep ahead of the sweeper bus that will be going at 6.5 hour pace. That is the pace required to complete 26.2 miles in 6.5 hours, not 6.5 mile per hour pace, in case you were wondering.

If anyone wants to join us in Bournemouth to shout encouragement or laugh then please come on down. It starts at 10am. Mike has suggested that we will meet all supporters in the pub for lunch afterwards, but I am pretty confident that I will not finish much before 4pm, so it may have to be a very late lunch for me! If you cannot come down on the day, but want to show your support anyway, we are raising money for the Sherpas for Xtreme Everest appeal. This appeal will split money raised 50:50 between the Summit Trekking fund that supports the families of Sherpas killed or injured in the tragedy on Everest this year who helped deliver our research, and the ongoing research programme of Xtreme Everest itself.

To date research carried out by Xtreme Everest has changed the way clinicians manage a number of conditions, such as stroke and chronic headache, and is improving our understanding of the impact of the stress of low oxygen on such things as sugar levels, blood clotting, muscle tissue, the circulation of blood to the brain, heart function, and the circulation of blood to peripheral tissues. However, we still have so much more to achieve, much of which requires the analysis of blood we still hold in storage from our research. It costs Xtreme Everest approximately Â£14.50 a day to store this blood safely. Some of the tests we are planning to carry out on these samples currently cost up to Â£500 per sample. Thank you to everyone who has already shown their support via our website or through committing to regular giving.

You can donate by visiting the website www.Justgiving.com/Sherpas4Xtreme-Everest or texting SFXE99 and a donation amount to 70070.

Thank you for all your support.