Marathons next year

[El Gordo]

Hi Rick, great to hear from you.

My plan for 2005 is Hamburg in the spring and something else in the autumn - sorry "the fall"....

At present, Dublin is very much my later target. My only hesitation is that I've publicly announced in the last 2 years that I'd be doing Dublin, and on both occasions it's fallen through. I'm definitely keen to do it, and if you think you can make it over, that would be great. If it comes off, we won't, of course, be "doing it together".... I suspect I'd be around 90 minutes behind you at least. But I would hope to recover my pride once the Guinness guzzling begins later on...

If you can't make it in 2005 I'd still hope to do Dublin, though I'll decide nearer the time. My good friend Richard Bampfield did the Medoc Marathon this year and wrote a great report about it, so that's another possibility, if Dublin falls through. (In wine terms, Medoc is to France what Napa is to the USA.)

Have a good Christmas Rick, and please keep dropping in.

(Rick is one of my several American friends I always worry about offending when I'm rude about George W Bush, so I'm always relieved when he reappears....)