Another fantastic trip to Le Mans for the 24 hour race... and you have guessed it, on skates!  For those that don't know the "24 Roller " emulates the 24 hour car race pretty well.  Each team has up to 10 members (and three pit crew) and your team has to do as many laps as possible in 24 hours, they even do the Le Mans start where all the skates are lined up on one side of the track with skaters on the other.

This year was hard work, both from the organising from (with the new job) and the actual event.  In a complete change from last years heatwave it decided to rain this year.  It could have been a lot worse though as it wasn't driving rain with setting up the campsite and taking tents down done in the dry which makes a HUGE difference.

On Sunday 17th June 2007 I skated from London to Brighton, yes roller skated, the full 54 miles!!  It hurt! but I did it and managed to raise £1000 for the Portsmouth hospitals NHS trust :-)

Back in 2006 some very fit skaters skated from London to Brighton as part of the BHF bike ride.  I liked the idea of it and have done marathons before (26 miles) but they tend to be flat, smooth and nothing like this.  I really wasn't sure about this so sponsorship seemed the best way to make up my mind.  I don't do sponsorship very often (I am not a fan of people that ask for sponsorship to do something they are going to do anyway) but set myself a stab in the dark target of £1000 for the Portsmouth hospitals NHS trust who looked after my grandfather wonderfully during his last days.

Shortly after the Halloween Sk8Jam event I was contacted by a local paper that wanted to do an interview with me!  How cool is that?  Anyway, long story short here it is...

Definitely one of the most fun of the Pagan festivals and a great excuse to get dressed up!

I had three fancy dress Halloween parties this year over two days and all of them skating.  Two roller disco's at Camberley Arena and a Halloween street skate in London.  I had been subtly growing the stubble/beard for the last three weeks and had decided to shock everyone by shaving my head and cutting a goatee!  I think it worked :-)

This was my first Berlin marathon and as such I don't have much to compare it to.  I have previously done two marathons but they were 2 and 3 years ago at Goodwood, I actually got a faster time three years ago than two!! For the people trying to imagine the Berlin marathon (especially those that have only every done races on circuits) it is just like the London marathon... only in Berlin... and on skates! It is through the streets of Berlin and crowds line the streets shouting encouragement.  Unlike the London marathon it is also very smooth and a very nice surface to skate.  The Berlin marathon is both a skate race (on the Saturday) which draws around 9000 skaters and a running race (on the Sunday) which draws over 40000 runners.