Well as a lot of UK is snow bound I was quite looking forward to my January jaunt of Xiamen Marathon (china), a couple of days in 

Dubai (working on RAK Half), and popping over to Kenya to make sure Matt Pierson is settling in ok, then straight to MUMBAI for the Marathon on 17th and lastly back home to Scotland on 19th.

Outbound travel was OK, New Years Eve spent with a band of jolly East European's who were to take on the might of East Africa in Xiamen, so not a lot of booze to start the New Year and the red wine was foul!

Race went ok, weather was decent but very shoddy pacing by Team Rosa, seemingly not wanting anyone else to have a chance to win, they 'fertleked' the first 25k with splits varying from 2:47 to 3:15, and its a pretty flat course! Anyway the cream came to the top and Feyisa Lelisa (winner of Dublin Marathon debut in October) stormed an 8:45 last 3k to break the record and win, organisers happy and contract renewed for 2011, with a few more chances, so maybe a couple of places for Brits if  we see some good progress in 2010, its a good option for an early year stab!

So off to airport and then it all goes 'tits up', all flights to Beijjing were cancelled as Beijing was snowbound so I'm stuck in an airport hotel trying to re plan my next stages of the travel.....joys of international work...not!

Anyway 2010 promises to be a good one, a lot of signs of progress in 2009 and there should be some interesting Marathon debuts in London I think with 'Wicksy' (who you can also follow here on RunnersLife) and Lemoncello, if it all goes well both are capable(and I think be targeting) sub 2:12, which really would be great and I think would lead a whole bunch of guys and girls under the >European and Commonwealth Games qualifying times and set the ball rolling, slowly but surely towards 2012.

I hope those English amongst you (Sorry Simon) like the work I'm doing on competition planning and international opportunities. There is a good breakdown of it all on the England Athletics site, but the home countries international series will benefit everyone. I will also find other races during the year and chances in Europe and which I will flag here. Young Matthew Bowser did well on New Years Eve winning in Vienna and I'm sure will get a lot of motivation from that. Anyway back to planning my travel and trying to rescue my trip, ill update from Mumbai probably, with an early doors view of how Matt Pierson is getting on in sunny Kericho!(apparently its raining there now). As the year goes on ill go off in different directions but will try to bring some inspirational stuff to my articles from my travel and other experiences.

Happy New Year to you all and lets see a bunch of Personal Best's in 2010!

Ian