One Week Today

In exactly seven days I will meet my very good friend Catherine Manifield at Heathrow Airport before we jet off for our next 'adventure' together. Catherine and I met when we were training for the MDS back in 2007 and have been friends ever since. We spent a very 'traumatic' weekend training on the South Downs in preparation for the MDS where I came away feeling totally unprepared, and that I had made a dreadful mistake signing up for such a challenging event where, even the fittest, struggle to complete the course.
But, I soon picked myself up and, if I may not have been the fittest and fastest person partiscipating in the event, what I lacked in fitness I made up for with sheer determination and a positive focus on what it was I wanted to achieve and there was no way that I wasn't going to finish!! And so it was, that Catherine and myself started at the back of the pack every day at the MDS but with the thought of completing what was billed as 'The toughest foot race on Earth' we finished the course together(with lots of competitors behind us) and duly received our medals.
We have shared so much together, been through so much together, we've cried, we've laughed, I've screamed at her when she was holding everyone up climbing up a mountain on a single track saying she couldn't go any further(she christened it 'the mountain of doom') but she is like me and will never give up. She is super organised and is always in a good mood and even when times get tough(and believe me they do) she still manages a smile.
We leave Heathrow next Wednesday and fly to Madrid, from there to Santiago, then fly to Calama and from there we get picked up and drive to San Pedro where the race starts and finished. The terrain that the race covers is 1.6Km above sea level so to make things even tougher there is the possibility of Altitude sickness to look forward to,,,,,
Today, I had real doubts about how ready and able I am for this. I don't know where this came from as I'm always the person who motivates everyone else and tells them to think positively. Something I read a few years ago and that has always stuck with me is 'If you never go out of your comfort zone how on earth do you know what you can achieve' and I have found that to be so true. Way back in 1999 I told a friend of mine who wanted me to do a half marathon that I never ran, I had it in my head that I couldn't run, but I got up one morning and said to myself 'if I can go out and run for three miles without stopping then I'll go for the half marathon' and to my surprise I did, so I completed the half marathon six weeks later, went on to do lots of marathons and now I'm on to ultramarathons!! Going out of my 'comfort zone' all the time and pushing to see how much more I can do.... I think I have just talked(written) my doubts away and YES I CAN DO this,,,,,,the Atacama here we come..........