Thanks, I did think that about bottlenecks on the first climb but equally don’t want to hold people up or start too quickly.
I think the first climb is something like a quarter of the overall ascent.
And 23 hours you’d have already had quite a lot of running in your legs by the time you got to Courmayer.
I applied for CCC twice and didn’t get in. I thought I might have had a chance but seeing how much faster @tunster is than me and he was worried about making cut off.
It just proved to me that i was kidding myself. 
On that first climb there is always someone slower ahead - take a look at the YouTube videos - always a massive conga line
After the Tete de la Tronche comes a nice downhill followed by about 10km of flattish section along the Val Ferret which is really good to set a nice rhythm before the climb to the Grand Col Ferret - after that it’s a decent 15km downhill so your quads need to be in great shape to bank some time on this section
Plenty of dot watching to do this weekend with the Spine Race starting. It looks so tough and I really hate winter . Then I remembered I always wanted to walk to the South Pole as a challenge…
Love Spine watching, favourite race of the year
Enjoy watching it but just cannot imagine doing it - 268 miles of utter misery 
Maybe over a week or so, in the summer, with B&Bs along the way
I don’t want to watch it, but I do really want to do it. I’m sure it will forever remain as one of my pipe dreams I never bother to actively pursue.
Blooming eck….
That’s average pace of 6:32 min/ mile or 4:02 min/km or just under 15kmh
For 10 hrs 51 mins
Blows my mind
I went out to bring the car off the road earlier. The rain from earlier is absolutely frozen solid and temp showing -2 at 8.00pm!
I really hope it gets better for them because wet cold and dark is horrible. 
Have they started yet? It doesn’t look like anyone has moved?
maybe they’ve all gone to the local park run instead?
I love watching it too… but it frightens me…. as every time I do, I think i’d like to do it one day!…
See above for the only way I’d consider it, not sure I could sell it as a week away to Mrs S though
I have a friend doing the Spine Sprint - circa 45 miles
Starts 12:00
My favourite race tip:
“If you see sheep poo turning into a butterfly and attacking you, you may not have slept enough.”
Lol, when I used to talk to Arthur Puckerin he told me tales of sleep deprived hallucinations in his deca IM’s etc., like the trees talking to him 
Strange what the brain does when massively sleep deprived.
I think there’s a train of thought that a lot of ghost sightings etc. are actually when sleep deprived and essentially they are in a semi-sleep state and dreaming while being awake.
One of the Pirate chaps was certain he saw a 6ft Eeyore in the woods at the double IM one year, being Lichfield I guess it’s possible
Looks like it starts tomorrow, countdown top right has it at just under 18 hours to go
Ah I see. I thought it said 8th but must have been looking at the wrong race.