I do have some valuable advice about picking a crew for an ultra. As some of you might be thinking of this as you sign up for stuff.

There are two bits. First is that however many you have in your crew, one of them has to be made the leader. This is not a leader in a Democratic sense but they must be a dictator.There will be no time for voting and dilly dallying when your runners is puking and crying and crapping themselves. Make sure there is someone in charge and make sure everyone knows this.

The second bit of advice (speaking as a bloke which therefore gives me the authority to speak on behalf of every bloke in the entire world) is to make this leader a woman. (Or rather, select one who is a woman in the first place, don't "make" her into a woman unless that's something he wants). Anyhoo I digress.

Now I don't want to be sexist and say that I think you should chose a woman due to their better organisational and multi-tasking skills, or the fact that they might function better when sleep deprived or hungry or have a more natural lack of squeemishness around body fluids.

No; none of that.

The reason I suggest making this leader a woman is that there is something about hearing the phrase "Oh for f**ks sake just f****g grow a pair and get on with it" that just seems to hit home harder when coming out of the mouth of a female rather than a male friend.

RunningandStuff