Eunice, Carlton and McGyver walk into a bar ....

So, here we are. 4 weeks to go and I'm in the eye of the storm literally and metaphoricaly. I'm writing the first part of this blog on an aeroplane that feels more like the inside of a cocktail mixer at Cubana than a safe form of travel thanks to storm Eunice (seriously who names our storms, who was Eunice and why is she so angry?!?!)

But the other storm is that the distances are tough now, and they only get tougher until the 5th of March when I taper (wow .... I'm sooooo excited about that! All you can eat BBQ after a run in the Pentlands!) I spend my day full of endorphins and am ready for bed by 8pm. I did my first ever 50km run out to Dunbar on Saturday and it was brutal. The wind was reaching 40mph and there were times when I was pumping my legs as fast as possible and going nowhere. I hate the wind! I didn't really notice it before this challenge but now a little part of me dies each morning when I look outside and see our plant covers (this is a real thing in Scotland) doing the Carlton dance in hurricane like conditions.

The only thing that's fun about doing longer distances is the snacks. I've discovered these 500 calorie pouches of peanut butter with dark chocolate in them for mid run fueling and they are my source of happiness. It might be because I've only ever tasted one after running 25km but I'm writing 'Resileint Nutrition' a very emotional thank you letter! While talking about food - astronaut cheese is part of my life now. I've packed some for the jungle so I have some dairy in my system and honestly other than having a bizarre crunchy texture (think crunchie bar) they are surprisingly pleasant.

So I'm on the home stretch now - one last vaccination (of SIX!!!!) to go. I had farewell cocktails in London with my friends and the common advice given was "don't die!” I think I can now put up my hammock in the dark with one hand behind my back McGyver style. I'll do one more blog before I fly out and then will be channeling my inner Ariana Grande with video content from the jungle. As I wrote that sentence I now have "welcome to the jungle" playing in my head .... I'm going to need to do a Spotify playlist - song suggestions in the comments please.