Alan Young (who along with Marja is crewing for William over in Köln) tells me :

“William is still first, [as of 36 hrs] 262km just 3km down on target after 4 hours of torrential rain.

Part of the track badly flooded and runners have to wade through.

[William] Took about 50 mins off to change clothes and have a meal. Now back running.”

Bob Stultiens (via William’s Facebook page) commented that earlier today

“I saw William in Cologne. He’s doing a great job. His pace was steady.”

Obviously the very heavy rain won’t help any of the runners to produce their best performances, especially as the very dusty running surface will have turned to mud – and a flooded track also kills speed and makes the going a lot tougher.

All this said, as William was only 4km below our pre-race plans for this point he is clearly keeping his form and focus regardless of the adverse conditions  (those of you who follow William regularly will have some idea of how much thought, time, effort and preparation we put in to his race plans… and how well he is able to put the plan into practice during events).

It should be an interesting few hours coming up, during which time I expect to see William steadily increase his lead.

In the meantime, spare a thought not only for William and the other athletes but also for Alan, Marja and the crews of the other athletes. It is going to be a very long and very wet night… Ultra-running requires a huge amount of dedication. So too does effective crewing.