Parkrun age participation

As I am part of the volunteer team for a new Parkrun in Conwy ( www.parkrun.org.uk/conwy/ )I took more than a passing interest in the latest newsletter.  There was an interesting graph showing participation based on age:

I found this shape interesting and fact that numbers of both men and women tailed off so quickly in the 50s and 60s.  More incentive to keep going then.

The Everest Marathon Training Starts Here

For about a year I have been contemplating doing a real adventure race and of course with my time in the Gurkhas, love of mountains and a trip to Far Western Nepal recently this became the target.  So the deed is done.  My entry has been accepted and the race takes place on 30 November this year (2015).  It is apparently a pretty tough route even if it is mainly "downhill" with undulations. the course organiser describes the race as:

"

"The race starts at Gorak Shep (5184m), just below Everest base camp, and finishes in the Sherpa 'capital' of Namche Bazaar (3446m). The course is a measured 26.2 miles/42 km and, although it is basically downhill, the trail undulates and there are two steep uphill sections." 

The altitude will be the main challenge as walking uphill at this altitude is difficult enough let alone running.  Here is the route:

So what is the training regime?  A long hilly run once a week building up time on my feet.  I will do a lot more fell running rather than roads this year.  Apart from that I want to keep up the speed work and shorter races.  I will probably aim for a long fell race at the end of the Summer.