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Sanday-based ultra-distance runner William Sichel hopes to overcome the disappointment of his enforced retiral in Basel in May with a good performance in Austria this weekend.
In the second of his special articles for The Orcadian, he explains how preparations have been going.

I'm now all ready for my run in the World 24-hour Championships to be held in the small town of Worschach (population of around 1,250) situated in the beautiful alpine valley of the river Enns near the town of Liezen and about 100 miles south east of Salzburg, Austria.
I will be running in the 'open' race as I haven't achieved the UK Athletics qualifying standard for the British men's team - and no one else has either!
I was a late entrant into the sport, and even at the age of 51, I am still training and racing hard to try and achieve my 12th Great Britain 'vest,' despite the fact that the selection standards, published by UK Athletics, have been raised to reflect improvements in world standards over the past few years.
So it's getting harder and harder to make the grade.
Much has been learned after my 'hiccup' in the Basel 24-hour event in early May, when a number of circumstances coincided and I pulled out at half way. This was the correct decision, and I have no regrets that I made it.

What went wrong? Well, I started a bit too fast - probably over eager to achieve the British team qualifying mark of at least 140 miles - then the weather turned severe, which compounded the error and finally I started getting cramping in one of my calf muscles. By that time there was no chance of achieving the qualifying mark so I made the judicious decision to stop and save my strength for another day.
These long ultra races can be vicious. Just when you think you are getting the hang of them, they turn round and kick you in the teeth.
Each race is a huge journey into the unknown but then that is part of their appeal as well.

Read the complete article at: www.orcadian.co.uk/