At 1am UK time (2am Monaco) the most recent update I have comes from the official race site at 11hrs 20mins into the race when William was in 2nd position overall having run 56.30 miles / 90.61 km thus far. In simple terms this is roughly 2 marathons plus another 4 miles in less than eleven and a half hours.

At present William is running pretty much exactly to plan but the next 12hrs will be crucial for our aims for this stage of the race.

To use an odd analogy, William’s “Achilles heel” has always been his stomach, generally in shorter ultras (24hrs or less) where the average speed is higher (as the competitors only have one day or less to run). Usually William is not bothered by stomach upsets and GI problems in multi-days due to the somewhat slower pace (which allows for more breaks and better digestion) but this time round we are aiming to push things somewhat and William will be intending to clock up 100 miles within the first 24hrs (which is generally respectable as a distance for most people in a 24hr race, and a cracking pace given that there are seven more days to come). The more William pushes his pace up toward his 24hr race speed, the greater the chances of his running into stomach/GI problems. We are hopeful that the nutritional strategy William has adopted for this race should guard against this, but as ever only time will tell. From experience, if William can make it to 24hrs without vomiting then he should be in the clear as far as his stomach is concerned for the rest of the 8 days.

If all goes according to our plans for this part of the race, William will be looking at having run 100 miles (or in other words, around 4 marathons in distance) by circa 2pm Monaco time / 1pm UK time on Sunday.

Watch this space!