Deep and crisp and uneven

The snow has arrived in Sheffield, making for slightly treacherous, though very beatiful running conditions. 

Lady Canning's Plantation, just up t'road from home

Since returning from the Brecons, the focus has shifted to getting used to running on consecutive days. And loading up the pack - standard weight is now around 7kg. It's going to be a long winter.

We've also been busy planning some fund raising for the Bluebell Wood Hopsice in Sheffield which supports families and children with life shortening ilnnesses, and Macmillan Cancer Support. We've set up a charity donation page at www.virginmoneygiving.com/team/ianandrichmds2012 which we'll be promoting more widely in the near future, as well as hosting and organising a range of fund raising events between now and April 2012.

As a result of conversations with a local Moroccan restaurant, we're now also officially sponsored athletes - courtesy of Otto and Theresa at Otto's Restaurant and The Mediterranean on Sharrow Vale Road in Sheffield. They'll be featuring on our race kit as our main (and only) sponsor of equipment. I'm very excited that someone has agreed to back us in this way.

Our next objective on that front is to get some media coverage and we've been talking to the Sheffield Star newspaper about running an article on us after we completed the Percy Pud, a popular local 10k race, in full MdS kit - there was even a camel running, but in a potentially bad omen, we failed to beat it!

We didn't beat the camel but still got the Christmas Pudding