FIRE AND ICE !!!

So the World Championships have come and gone. Noivember 22nd Doha,Qatar saw me toe the line with the best in the world in the World 100km. Like I had mentioned in facebook posts in the lead up a niggling groin injury brought me to the Galway clinic to get an MRI to investigate the extent of the injury. It was just a grade 1 strain but the MRI showed up a stresss fracture in my pelvis.

I had a big call to make. Doctors said not to run,but I couldnt accept that all my hard training was going to be for nothing.

So what did I do ?? I took lots and lots of anti inflammatories and pain killers and numbed the pain and I ran.

All was going to plan til around 20km when I got severe stomach cramps and started vomitting...a lot!! The pain of the injuries was gone but too much pills started to mess up my insides.I could run ok when I didnt take any fluids or gels,but eventually I was gonna run out of steam and hit a wall.

I had 2 options.......

Option 1.... Throw in the towel and call it a day and feel sorry for myself for the next few weeks and months.

Option 2... Accept the fact that I could not kep down fluids and just tough it out til I collapsed.

It was easy. There was no way I was coming home with a DNF!

Long story short I battled on for the next 80km with the help and encouragement of my main man John Collins.

Job done albeit nowhere near as fast as I would have liked but it was a case of damage limitation.

There's always another day!

Little did I know that day was only around the corner !?!

Over the Christmas I received a call from the organisers of the Antarctic Ice Marathon 100km and have been invited over to run the race next week and all thanks to Global Running adventures and North Pole Marathon I will be jetting out to my base in Chile at the weekend before we arrive in Union Glacier camp on the 13/14th.

So from training for the searing heat of the middle eastern desert in November and trying to deal with racing in hot humid conditions to racing 100km on the frozen continent in -30c !!

This is what ultra running is all about...Just like my kit sponsors UVU (you versus you). Its your mental strength vs your physical capacity.

Do I know what to expect? Not a clue !! How many of you have raced 100km in Antarctica???

But it's challenges like this that I love. Testing your bodies limits in an extreme unforgiving environment and hopefully coming out on top.

Keep an eye on my Facebook page and also the Antarctic Ice Marathon Facebook page for updates

https://www.facebook.com/kwhyteultrarun

https://www.facebook.com/AntarcticIceMarathon