Mar 31
We’ve finally received our running jerseys from Craft! Check ’em out! Sponsors on the left, club logo on the right with the name of the race on the back. According to race rules, we’re not allowed to cover the upper torso with any logos, since this space will be covered by our race numbers and the official race sponsors. Read more
…in the snail mail the other day and we’d like to share it with all of our readers. Sent by Unicef UK, it thanked us – and above all, all of YOU – for our kind donation of £ 2 135,74 during last year’s New York City Marathon. We are enormously grateful for your continuing support!
As of today, you have helped us raise € 1 125 for the Children’s Ward at Saint Francis’ Hospital in Zambia. We’re aiming for a total of € 2 500 and are almost halfway there! With only a week to go, see if you can spare some crowns, euros, dollars or pounds and donate to our cause. Remember: we’ll be sweating blood for our charity during an entire week in one of the most inhospitable places on God’s green earth, risking scorpion stings, dehydration and toe amputations. Go ahead and donate – you know you want to!
“On behalf of the children, and all of us at Unicef, thank you so much for your gift. Can you also pass on our thanks to those who sponsored and supported you through your fundraising.”
A Thank You-letter from Unicef UK
Only 10 days to go before we will be out in the sand with 1000 competitors all wanting to cross the finish line after covering 250 km. Here is how it will look:
“How in the name of all that is holy am I supposed to fit everything into my backpack?!?” I asked miss H yesterday afternoon, more than a little bit exasperated. A 25 litre rucksack is at first glance pretty spacious, but after having stuffed it full with my sleeping bag, mattress, food, gels, medical kit and spare clothes, I still found myself a helluva lot of space short. Read more
The English economist John Kay has written quite a lot of a concept called obliquity. In a 2004 Financial Times article he wrote that “Strange as it may seem, overcoming geographic obstacles, winning decisive battles or meeting global business targets are the type of goals often best achieved when pursued indirectly. Read more
When one considers the name of Marathon des Sables (MdeS), it undeniably has a certain poetic ring to it. It means simply Marathon of the Sands, and conjures up images in one’s mind of mighty sand dunes coloured in ochre, rusty red and gold. Read more
According to miss H – who for your information has an infallible memory, believe me – at this time of spring last year, we were basking in lovely sunlight and astonishing temperatures (for the Norwegian capital) of +14°C. Trying to get a respite from the ice and freezing temperatures of Oslo, I decided to visit the folks down in Göteborg this weekend. Read more
Imagine if we would fly a hot air balloon over the Sahara instead of trying to run across it. Wouldn’t that be neat? In three week’s time we will depart first for Madrid and then for Morocco for the Marathon des Sables. It’s mindboggling, really, and hard to fathom. It feels like we applied for the race only yesterday, but it was almost more than a year ago. Read more
Hey everyone. Last week was a long one. Not only in terms of training (80k in total, 26k of which was spent with a 6.5 kg pack on my back), but also at work where I – contrary to my usual habit – spent a lot of hours overtime at my job. As most of you know, I work as a pediatrician. Kids are an absolute joy to work with, and most of the time they get well pretty quickly and can be sent home to their toys and teddybears. Read more
Today we picked up our sleeping bags for Marathon des Sables at our sponsor Chillout Travel Centre. After having gone through a number of different brands and models, we’ve chosen to go with Western Mountaineering’s ExtremeLite Series. Apart from the weight and stuff size (how small you can stuff it), the most important aspect of the bags is in what kind of temperature you can safely sleep. Read more
Right now €603 
Jakob & Jakob 