now one hundred days into his leadership people in power asks whether delivering on promises will be as easy in practice as it was in pain right now the nation is not feeling confident right now people are disappointed with the bombing in iran's one hundred days on al-jazeera. and i'm down to one in doha the program out of the top stories here at al-jazeera u.s. president donald trump has all the full withdrawal of american troops in syria and declared victory of eisel the decision has surprised us foreign allies knowing that some members of his own republican party logical reports in washington it's a massive move that will dramatically change the landscape of the war in syria and one not many saw coming the u.s.

president tweeting out that isis has been defeated and that was the only reason u.s. troops were in syria we have won against isis we've beaten them and we've beat now badly we've taken back the land and now it's time for our troops to come back home . but according to the u.s. government the islamic state of iraq and the levant is not actually defeated a point stressed by the president's own state department just last week i think it's fair to say americans will remain on the ground after the physical to feed a caliphate until we have the pieces in place to ensure that that defeatism during the move comes after a phone call between president trump and president urged one of turkey he's made clear he wants to target the kurds who have fought beside the u.s. and that is more difficult to do if u.s. troops are in his way just a few months ago the president himself played heralded as a sacrifice the kurds have made we're trying to get along very well we do get along great with the kurds we're trying to help them a lot so they fought with us they died with us they died we lost. tens of thousands

of kurds died fighting isis now many worry what will happen to the kurds what this message sense is we don't stick with people our friends without the kurds in the syrian democratic forces we couldn't have beaten isis we couldn't have taken back and rocker because we were not willing to commit all of those troops that were necessary others say that should be a concern for the u.s. first time in my lifetime we have a prayer a president with the courage to declare victory and bring the troops home this came as a surprise for many on capitol hill some senators calling this a big mistake it's hard to imagine that any president would wake up and make this kind of decision with this little communication with this little preparation if this decision is a withdrawal of all of our forces in syria and now we're dramatically listen this isn't a bomb a white move because now that the u.s. has withdrawn or is going to withdraw from syria we have left basically turn the

country over to russia into an even greater extent iran the administration and the pentagon both released statements saying the fight against i so isn't over but the u.s. is simply transitioning to the next phase of the campaign they didn't say what that phase might look like. al-jazeera washington a yemeni woman has just arrived in the u.s. city of san francisco to visit her dying son not a year long legal battle to get a visa shamus when they had been prevented from seeing him by a travel ban on people from yemen and four other mainly muslim countries as well as north korea and venezuela a two year old boy is an american citizen with a rare brain disorder and the next not official in the democratic republic of congo says sunday's polls might be delayed due to technical difficulties police fired tear gas on opposition supporters in the capital kinshasa after political rallies a band of security concerns. chicago's archbishop has apologized for the catholic

church's failure to address accusations of child sex abuse by its clergy the latest revelations of a cover up involved five hundred priests and clerics in the u.s. state of illinois over seventy years. brazil's outgoing president michel tema is facing new charges of corruption and money laundering he's accused of taking bribes in exchange for extending contracts to port operators just at the time ten has been charged with corruption previous cases were dismissed by congress but this time he's likely to face court proceedings after stepping down as president on the first of january and hungary's opposition has warned there won't be any let up in antigovernment protests or an alliance of trade unionists has also pledged to hold nationwide strikes if a controversial labor law is signed into a faint protesters are condemning what they call a slave law allowing employers to for staff to work overtime until a payment for up to three years all right so those are the headlines the news continues here on al-jazeera after al-jazeera correspondent station that's watching

. this is one of the world's most beautiful yet unpredictable environments. and it was where i was about to try and run my first ever marathon. she just told my wife and mother they were absolutely right this was a really stupid idea. the question of why we run had months previously been my starting point in the weeks that followed i saw inspiration from some of the

world's best distance runners. to feel like we are flying that he said to move if it is then asked whether running is something we were born pseudo our ancestors are all riders were were not good at running were left essentially on the evolutionary and enjoyed a less than convincing start to my own road running career as a sixty five year old man a fifty year old woman and a taller old boy that will run faster than me now i was in the ants heartsick starting one of the world's most enlightened marathons was easy enough trying to finish it well that would prove to be rather more complicated doubled down the president cause you a go it goes up your i start pretty sharp. i'm

live in the middle east in cats or where i work as a sports journalist. like many people do to stay fit and stay clear of my inbox for an hour it seems every week. my job has taken me to sporting events all over the world but few can match a trip i made in two thousand and eight when i went to the north pole to fill my mouth and. started to leave the cult but. it's a love as well but. it was an experience that inspired me to think i might one day want to do something similar and not just stand around with a microphone. and sit you know i did i just felt rather cold this is. in

the noise swarm can't so i guess to get rid of my feelings of worthlessness i'm now getting ready to run a marathon my first run of the art taking in the north pole but in the antarctic in the south pole. my older brother brian is the one member of my family who's actually run a marathon his ultimately successful trip to the finish line started with a health check up the doctor said yeah you're ok but you quest for all is quite hard. to watch your blood pressure and he thought about losing some weight so came out of the doctor's real reason to be depressed and thought i need to do something about it when you cross this what you mean the. sports car of the earth folks i've got. my fiancé's twelve years younger than me and tops off by running a marathon so yeah there that's one way of looking at it it's quite lazy journalism

to be honest. time then. journalistic and running game i'm embarking on the biggest physical challenge of my life along the way i'm going to ask why running in all its forms is the sport so many of us choose to do. kenya has produced four of the five fastest ever mouth and runners the perfect place to step up training for my first. in so many cities and cultures running is something that squeezed in around the rest of people's lives and that's as an elite level really struggles for its sanction well there's no danger of that in the kenyan sound of running here so i can very seriously and those that choose to run they side with us have dedication.

in this country of running champions ten has become an unofficial capital. some bonehead others drawn here another promise of training with the best. i want to know why when i watch a marathon on t.v. more often than not it's a kenyan out in front. i can't imagine a day without any i hear people addicted to coffee at home you know it's just that any little thing the start of the day. a newly trained how i would be so that was my motivation like train hard and.

he's just having fun. but what keeps you power the cotton feet that you're going to lead to something you notice he's how you have to train. whenever i'm in the race. i know that my t.v. was feared it would. be printed in a little hard to this i always keep on pushing. knowing that i can beat. it turn is a town where that can do attitude has taken root and the local school a tree is planted every time one of their former students wins a major running title over the years the school grounds have been turned into something of a forest. well thing well this tree based tribute to success tells you is that unlike what i was taught at school really isn't that i can probably count in kenya

it's all about the winning i don't need as any gagnon who runs on this are rich men is uniquely placed to start telling an englishman why the sort of leisure running i do as a little place here in kenya column are connel arrived in eton in the one nine hundred seventy s. to work as a teacher and sets up the town's first organized training program. he's since guarded a handful of athletes to the very top including olympic eight hundred metre champion david rudisha the idea of running to school running to the market running to town running to a neighbor's house you know it's in the rural areas it's part of your lifestyle it is something that you've internalized from the time you can walk. in school i was very active and whenever i go for lands which is about two metres i used to run home when i'm coming back to school i didn't have an idea what i was

doing but i was training with no. running for me it was a way of transport coming from one side to another one and if you make sure each test wickets you have to go to school every morning sometimes you're late must end because you need to catch up with your closest. and olympic legend from my own country house put into context just what sort of a head start this might give a kenyan runner in the west life is has become very much easier physically for most people. cept of certainly doesn't take things easy he was chairman of the london twenty twelve olympic organizing committee as a runner he wants to impede goals and set twelve world records one forty six god record i didn't think. he held the eight hundred meter world record for eighteen years. i came from a different set up on iran as quickly as my contemporaries from africa were running

at the time in my country u.k. young people when they get to the age of fifty on balance are about fifty percent less fit than they were or less actively were when they were nine children that once walked to school rode bikes to school sometimes even ran to school like i did don't latin for all sorts of reasons and that's a pattern but certainly in advanced countries is is not unusual. being active from a young age undoubtedly contributes to kenya's running culture. of us have argued kenyans might have the perfect d.n.a. to run for that the thin air of high altitude i was there is here any ten helps condition the body for distance running. but simple economics rather than complex science could also explain a lot. of. serious

she said with life without money is tough and that's what half or so are like me now i have nothing. in my previous i know when i saw about maybe the. last i get money. out to some part of my status you know i live without money even now maybe i'm on the front trade and i don't know what my quota in the house because up until now now until. even to come on the court and some of you. think of the motivation for a casual run it can always be quite an interesting one when you find yourself out in the middle of nowhere i was just a camera man and some disinterested large stock to keep you company on the run is

hurting washing not just stop what you very quickly learn harry said to the local runners just don't have that luxury of choice to stop if i stop talking so darn watch t.v. and get on with the rest of my life if they choose to stop running i mean i have a decent hard to go back to. the kids around here see more elite athletes you know owning property building a big house driving a big car and doing better for their families and that's a fantastic motivation because they see largely as a career as a way of out of poverty as you said we're going to do to make a career we don't burn for fun when you know that i have nor the option in life already i don't have any other way i'll. even realize then you get to know you would be most of their motivation from the thing for been there before they had

their living aboard lives and they're driving a good car and. now you are an eight hundred meter runner can you beat david rudisha that is something i can do i'm training these sorts of trains i'm armani's also. i'm training with champions not to use my hash a lot of stuff one time i will be a champ. my time talking to edwin has really helped to put my own challenge in the context i'll be running a marathon because i want to see not because i have to. training can be arduous and it's certainly time consuming but witnessing the levels of sacrifice and commitment here has convinced me that in order to be ready for the heart sick taking shortcuts just isn't an option. well it's disheartening as it might be i have to accept that

i'm not going to win any marathons or make any money from running but i still want to run and that's the question i still have to answer why do i and millions of other plautus still want to get on the road and run as best we can. one place to find more than a few clothes doing the best they can is at the new york marathon my own rice on ice is now a month away two more contrasting events it would be hard to imagine but in common with the vast majority of the fifty thousand runners here i'll be running to win just to finish.

the scale of this event on the level of efforts on show i was definitely sharpening my own focus. and it looks frightening just right. on the inspiring in equal measure. the number you will experience i had the privilege to do boston three years ago but i mounted proudly support just entire day with unbelievable one year ago even when i went to the shops i went to my car sit on the call did not the united states show new york yankee you know me i'm going to we made it. there be it outdoors in my time it's just wonderful on your with people when you do these races just not going like it. glengarry is a psychologist and an experienced runner who might just be able to explain why so

many far from elite athletes like myself are driven to run a marathon. when you look at marathon running it's kind of like it takes recreational running and then it takes it a step beyond so i think that the psychological needs that marathon running fills for people in westernized societies now are completely beyond health that's very much about showing someone i can do this i can achieve something that everyone thinks is extraordinary and once you realize that you can do that and you see that in yourself you start to believe other things about yourself i can definitely glenn is saying i want to see how all responds of putting myself in homes why and i really won't know how i'm going to react to the distance the race all the cold until i'm actually there the idea of a marathon in the south pole area on believable you know i mean it's like it's like you've got two major adverse things right up against each other you know marathon your first marathon experience to such an extreme climbing interconnecting those

together in that kind of experience you know that you have few few options but if you run into that i think you're just going to have to muscle through it time i think to ask a medical professional if i can be assured my body won't crack up on the antarctic ice while that's. that's a tough question. i've never seen anybody i've never met anybody who's preparing for a reason like that when he's not laughing at me. is a doctor who specializes in trying to keep runners on their feet i guess really listening to your body from the beginning to and then seeing if anything is out of the ordinary when it comes to your joints your bottom of your feeds your skin you know i think will be an important thing and before anything gets worse as you're running to stop and monitor and make sure everything is ok you know anybody

who signs up for a marathon should be fully aware of the amount of training that. should be involved and the kind of pain and aches and all kinds of negative things that are associated with running marathons people do need to understand that when they're taking up running as a sport there is an inherent risk of injury that comes with it and when they have a set target and they're so determined to get there that they try to either ignore or mask the pain or any signal that the body is giving them that could be a cause for disaster. running barefoot probably won't be advisable in the antarctic but a sizable minority of runners believe taking your shoes off is the key to staying injury free while you're trying and at this point i'm nothing if not open minded

when you're barefoot running you take short strides walk him is a running coach shuns traditional trying is going to stand here without looking at them that you know. one leg so ready. don't look down look up stay close the line and as you can see you're all over the place here he says the shoes we think are protecting our joints could be doing quite the opposite so novel question is big on the book on your heel you can hit the ground harder more over. because you have a cushion you're wearing heels as a guy i tell guys this all the time you're wearing a one inch to two inch heels just like high heels so that shortens your killie's tent and over time it definitely shortens and it does not get longer and which causes all sorts of other issues once you mess with your foot and your ankle the mechanics there it's going to mess with you mean mechanics and you get mechanics. with a blade is your right ok that's it i think people come up to me all the time and

say you know is it dangerous to run in central park or anywhere for that matter barefoot and i'd say the opposite it's safer you know allows me to feel the ground allows me to be more in touch with my surroundings and i'm more aware and i feel more comfortable when i'm running that way as well now i run pain free and i enjoy my runs a lot more than i used to. don't himself would agree that barefoot style isn't for everyone on stayed injury free. and i have to say i'm not too happy to be feeling the ground beneath my feet quite so directly. a few days later my train is all safely back home and i'm getting ready to spend an evening with new york's orchard street run as it's the sort of group that can now be found in many major cities i'm hoping they can give me a final push in my premarital preparations i. live

movers originally started because i was trying to get a girl to run with and two years later still going on the girls is no longer in the picture but the group has. the advantages right off the bat we're just social interaction and like minded individuals coming together for for a run created a dynamic that i think was more specific than going to a bar or going to a party most people are not working nine to five jobs they're in creative fields they're living downtown they're young they might run off and it's a great. place to eat. i said a different route every week to keep things interesting and to challenge people in different ways and that sign amec is what makes it appeal to what i think is a different type of runner than the cliché. running by myself i'm more likely to

swallow slow down or not really push myself but like riding with other people. person first thing stay with them stay with them stay with them when you're running side by side with somebody it's like feel not easy that you're running the same route i think there's something more social about it and a lot of people recognize even if you're not speaking out like they are used to be a competitive runner now live the new york life most nights and want to stay fit you wanted something that was you know convenient but people that were just about on it and that was just it fits my lifestyle perfectly. the group's approach to par strikes refueling is definitely a paling that. i face like shit. but too much time spent in a bar in new york's lower east side probably want how come the start of the world's

most marathon that's now just three weeks away it's time to try and get rice ready . i've come to florida first as a. mouthful. so we're going to mexico what was. a i. was. we have a rather here today i believe for a england he is running here to day and the and the very short time he will be running and get this and aren't. ok.

anyway we wish him all the luck in the world i'm about to start finding out if weeks of training have actually. medieval western society it was a feudal society that took haleigh to keep the war and as soon as the pope ended his speech some people stood up and said god will sit down and the entrance to the

city was horrific they killed people in the streets in their houses and in. the crusades and arab perspective it was sold one shot at this time on. it's a daunting climb to one of the holiest sites in bhutan. seems to defy gravity every piece of cheese is expected to complete the pilgrimage to ensure peace and happiness what it became a democracy in two thousand and eight the time put happiness at the center of all political policy inspiring the un to pass a resolution urging other nations to follow bhutan example but how do you measure it. it's a nice happinesses but when sure it's if it is quantifiable but by simply turning its pursuit into policy time has done what no other country has. they wanted forty three billion pounds worth of weaponry that was six billion

pounds in commission. there is no hope of any more because there's always a small people for really really good mistakes. in essence we in the united states have privatized the ultimate public function more shadow on al-jazeera. hello i'm daryn jordan in doha with the headlines on the al-jazeera u.s. president donald trump assaulted a full withdrawal of american troops from syria and declared victory over i still in the country but decision has surprised his foreign allies and i'm good some members of his own republican party the drawdown of an estimated two thousand troops expected within sixty to one hundred days a yemeni woman has just arrived in the u.s. city of san francisco to visit her dying son after a year long legal battle to get

a visa shamus when they had been prevented from seeing him by a travel ban on people from yemen and four other mainly muslim countries as well as north korea and venezuela the two year old boy is an american citizen with a rare brain disorder from the council on american islamic relations which helped seamus we get a visa get a statement shortly after she arrived. the reality is that the waiver process. there's no transparency no meaning. and no right. to her there was no case to begin with and that she should have been approved months ago. so let's be clear. if she went. was not an act of kindness on their part. the embassy and department of state had a legal obligation to adjudicate same plane or one within

a reasonable amount of time and. the u.s. senate has passed a funding bill to keep the government running at least until the eighth of february the temper legislation was approved to avoid a complete federal shutdown after a deadlock of a donald trump's plans for a border war with mexico trump has previously refused to sign the bill if it didn't include five billion dollars for the war. chicago's archbishop has apologized for the catholic church's failure to address accusations of child sex abuse by its clergy the latest revelations of a cover up involved five hundred priests. in the u.s. state of illinois over seventy years. election official in the democratic republic of congo says sunday's polls might be delayed due to technical difficulties. opposition supporters in the capital. over security concerns are those the headlines the news continues here.

it didn't exist three weeks ago. good journalism. but.

this is a small scale event where the emphasis is for those running either a short distance. but i'm also building up to the wrong business if my first. which will be. a huge undertaking as far as i'm concerned but it's the sort of thing humans will do the distance running was key to . humans who were not good at running were essentially in the evolutionary hunting was a very basic aspect of what our ancestors did you have to run to get the game and long distance running abilities are particularly effective for

a long time and yet the game eventually where the animals. we have the luxury of not exercising working very little for food of eating things that are high fat and high sugar in abundance and i think that's very evolutionarily on. the way that i feel if there. is proof positive that something that we're engineered mentally and physically to do is the other way to get that feeling that i've experienced but something about running taps into something so deep. days when you're in a pack. a wild animal i feel like this is a similar experience. might be just how useful a lot of. what i do at least make it to the finish line.

well you know well paul from the from the hot run seems to be pale it was actually quite enjoyable i guess i was about to do now is twice the distance in a howling wind and in the freezing cold sorry i should be zero zero. zero. my parents were on holiday naipaul i don't do a great job of further boosting my confidence levels well he's completely in my good for. this purpose so it is there for you so you can collapse on itself it is only a bill it is only a marriage you can stop any time. or your life. a mother's melodrama aside my parents' concerns do look to have some statistical backing so my age groups are common got to be happy with that so you realize there's a sixty five year old man a fifty year old woman and

a twelve year old boy that will run fast that i me so i still have it work sitting . around like this is really all about enjoying yourself oh. well i did. but not all right as i'm about to find out. this is chile's atacama desert it's my final stop before the on top six. a tough place to run would be hard to find it's the driest hot deserts on earth it's also at altitude so there's limited don't sit in the. moment think the obvious location for a marathon. the guiding hand behind

this expedition on the upcoming antarctic ice marathon is run a richard donovan in twenty twelve he managed to get through and run a marathon on each of the world's seven continents in less than five days now he's organizing a marathon on a volcano and it's kind of counter-intuitive really in some ways you know bring people out to shoot where they're going to gastro frogs jonas' you know almost fifteen thousand fish trolling you know volcanoes one of them is an active volcano and i just think that makes it attractive to people it's such apparent lapses in human logic that make running fertile ground for philosophy and runa mark rowlands is a guy called bernard suits the canadian philosopher. who asked this question you know if i suppose you could live in a utopia where everything that you could get for work you could now acquire through the push of a button what would you do how would you spend your time in tokyo and his answer

that i think is right is that we would find ways of making things difficult for ourselves you have this goal and there are various ways of achieving it and we choose a less than maximally efficient way we choose a difficult way of achieving it just so we can play the game. this volcano marathon is a case in point and altitude of four founds and five hundred meters looms over the start line that's not far off the heights of everest base camp. this event is less than a week before my antarctic rice so i'm aiming to complete three quarters of the cold .

i'm hoping this race will provide a tough final test in extreme conditions to rapidly apparence the most brutal few hours of my running life so far ahead of me. a shortage of oxygen and oversupply of sun sand hill climbs these are conditions that force everyone taking part to dig very deep i'm struggling to breathe struggling with the terrain the urge to stop increases with every stride you decide you decide whether to go on whether you can do this well you can't do it jonathan katz is a man who knows how i'm feeling he's a psychologist who also enjoys running not just marathons but eighty kilometer

ultra marathons i think challenging yourself it has a very. quality i think there's a feeling of being alive of of pushing yourself of of consolation seeing what you know what you can do that really gets you aware of your own kind of mental and physical being when you push yourself too extreme why. i think it's very hard to get that in other parts of your life. the internal discussions taking place in my head my mind for whatever reason ignoring the screaming at the heels of my body. i carry on and do eventually hits the thirty kilometers it's hard it's i mean full. and you look at a marathon runners mentality it's kind of like why are you doing this you know this is painful you know you might even get and you're you know running a little bit is healthy and running too much may or may not be so really pointless

question of you know what what exactly is the mechanism by which people are going to continue doing something in spite of the pain i think what it largely is that when and when you do that when you're in pain when you're experiencing adversity and you carry on through it it's such a great signal to yourself of success. all motivation must come from yourself and where you find it is another question sometimes you don't know what to do in the middle of the event it can be different from one of them to another. in locations such as these you actually enjoy doing while you're suffering and i think i'm also the most envious career in the world at the moment until i watch people suffering a year in advance and the end of everyone they thank you very. this is the hardest market on every gun it's part of the past because of that people talk about that's the toughest race i ever did that in the toughest thing i've ever done. just to see

others were doing what i did i was just it was headed. this wrong was painful enough i'm now about to take on a full marathon and possibly even harsher conditions. on the southern tip of chile is my jump off point for the heart sick. a final briefing before we fly provides a worrying warning of the freezing temperatures that awaits is what really shuts down first is the fingers and toes and you turn to go to a bit around the growing of spot so a model worth put out for a bit of murder or some sort of. there's a good amount of ation as any to doublecheck i have packed the right kids. so a lot of people ask me exactly what it is i'm going to be waiting to run this city rice in the antarctic on your feet it's basically a pretty regular pair of running shoes extra grip on the bottom

a fairly waterproof couple of layers of thick socks hopefully that will be enough on the body it's just lots of thin layers and then a windproof outer shell pretty cool piece of kit over here this is your face mask hopefully that will protect you from the cold wind but also allowed to breathe through these vents here and then the most important thing. road testing some of that equipment is a practical step in my final preparations but just as important is the need to get mentally ready and possibly the greatest appeal running has for me is its ability to relax and focus my mind it's amazing how many times you can have you know it's beautiful things that you think of problems rolling around to the end of the run everything actually becomes much clearer it was

a very all my life while we was preparing to deliver in the olympic games we call it autopilot when you're intensity in the long jeopardy of the run as at a certain point there's something about the act of running that it's all stigmatizing and it allows me to. change my perspective on thoughts and ideas that i have and it gives me an ability to meditate on these things. in a much calmer clearer away. i've had plenty of time to meditate and was heading my way. of coming and run into the unknown has both concerned and captivated me. but after six months of training i feel i'm as ready as i'll ever be to take you know. it's a four and a half hour flight from arenas to the camp. and more than fifty other runners from

twenty one different countries are about to find out exactly what it is we've let a selves in for you what normally recommend that somebody get in an environment where they have to really train for it properly right it's not a set up for failure but it presents a problematic level. you have to really be made to not allowing yourself to go to the dark side you have to come to peace with the fact that they're going to be so many unknowns so you have to really open yourself up to the fact that you're going to experience many things that you can't even anticipate you don't want that piece to overwhelm you blind side so that you have to prepare yourself for that feeling of starting to get over well. not much can prepare you for the feeling of stepping into nature's deep freeze the lowest temperature ever recorded on earth minus ninety three degrees celsius was on this continent winds can hit three hundred kilometers per hour but for now conditions around the

tents were staying in a relatively calm. so this is a union which will be hung for the next few days and it's around here that i'll be running this marathon the south pole that is about one thousand kilometers in that direction where in a place so remote even the penguins are coming to visit surrounding is on all sides of the els with mountains that's the highest mountain range in the antarctic should hopefully provide us with some protection from the high winds that can blow through here but i have to say at the moment the weather is being really current so was i with all these layers on a much fitting quite warm. third everyone is making the weather window knowing it's unlikely to last long this is going to be something. and i can already. just be happy to finish my first marathon i didn't train for so that

was a whole different type of tough but i don't think any comparison to the terrain the cold the wind i think it will be draining but it will be awesome when we finish and know what we just did. the next morning brings rice and some proper weather the temperature is dropping and some confidence levels. last night was absolutely sick my tent my his sleeping bags not quite big enough to cover his head and his head actually froze to the camp but it's about minus twenty now on the clouds are coming in. you know you're going into. an unusual location so it's not just a conventional than you're attempting a marathon were other factors are going to come into play and the terrain and the environment you're running so you're actually doubling the effort involved in many respects i guess the advice i would give is to approach it like an ultra marathon

which is a distance longer than americans and very often the way people approach them is to go off very slow by managing your resources and if you think you're going just go slower still the best advice i would give you is. focus on the step in front of you and i said this really could tell you that you have a tough task ahead of you in those conditions especially. after months of training and imagining what this race would be like reality's now well and truly. the draining effect of the underfoot snow and ice is a maybe it's the strength is being pulled out of my body with every pace.

one step it's quite firm and the next step you feel like pulling on a crevasse that's quite difficult and it's going to catch twenty two there i said. the frozen because you're going googles up your i start to free shop i want to see difficulties i'm starting to wonder whether or not a training run in the desert was absolutely ideal preparation. in between a kilometer spent squinting through frozen goggles i have to remember to thank whatever chances i can to briefly defrost that's really hard. you know that in a lot of winter sports hockey and other things people sweat a lot but because they don't feel hot or they don't feel as tired as they do in hot weather they might now theel the need to drink water but i think that's when you need to be conscious about drinking water on a regular schedule be it

a lack of fluids in my system or too much ice in my ollie's it's not so long before i start to get somewhat confused. halfway off why i kind of poked my growing after about eight miles which isn't great so that's the school's in the old wife knows you to sweep through the body which is delightful but it's kind of like how you expect the. but in the brief moments when my always on sold together it's so beautiful the landscape is so stunning it's just an inspiration you just got to keep going. as my physical state declines i have to fight to stay mentally positive running i try to remind myself normally makes me feel good and i have after all chosen to be here. when after five hours and thirty five kilometers though any sense of enjoyment has well and truly past. it's minus twenty five degrees celsius and there's

ice growing out of my chin. i'm immersed in the sort of mental and physical conflict that consumes most mouth and runners at some points every step is hurting and giving me plenty of reasons to stop but that same step is also taking me closer to the finish if you push yourself in a marathon under any conditions are going to a point where there's nothing more that you want to do than to stop when those thoughts happen it doesn't mean there's a problem it just means that this is taxing and it's easier to think about ways of freeing yourself from that which ultimately is just stopping sitting on the ground but if the goal is to continue then you really need to give those very little fought and back to what's going to propel you to complete the race. can be a little pregnant here it's either you know you finish your. friend of mine said this to me during marathon training last year. i was going to give up at mile

seventeen during a training run and the way he put it just for some reason me logical sense and that was all i needed he said to me the decision to finish was made when you started running and. that's it there's no other acceptable outcome but to finish this run. it may not have been stylish quick but after six hours and twenty one minutes of forward motion the finish line doesn't last agree to corporates with my. it's. a. thank you. message again of the end. of my work on my heritage. i. and this race has been like

a dot on the horizon for so long and so it should just be in the antarctic as course syrians who actually finish the marathon i can call believe it. huge sense of relief a fair amount of pain. for just an overwhelming feeling of satisfaction. be the race to hit the finish line and first i've done i don't know maybe a hundred fifty marathons in my life but nothing so beautiful with a race against yourself just to finish i would never do it. running has revealed itself to be that rarest of sports. whether rows are yours to write. for me and i made that and. if you had to leave what is your educational good at

and i think human beings in general these are fickle because before you finish these five you want to go to engage if and have more than you want to go. you only want to feel like we are flying that is a dream of if. you can't play a certain level of tennis if you don't have a certain skill set but you can run a marathon maybe very slow but really to put the time and energy you can complete the regulated. thank you there's very few things in the. world that you kind of old in that kind of way it's very difficult to find the sort of time in your life things you do for their own sake and not for the sake of something else i think running has become that for many people a little corner of the allies we say right now i'm going to do this this just because i want to do it and for no other leads listen anything else you'd rather be doing those sort of moments reveal the kind of value that's. running

gives you an opportunity to be zen like it's a form of meditation very often because you can become so physically tired that you don't even have energy for thoughts on point and everything empties out of your head except what matters and that's where you have your opinion. i don't think i ever got runner's high so to speak until i broke eight miles after that it was it was done i was never going to stop. before that running was a task now the task is waiting for the next runs i. possibly searching for that high that that feeling of euphoria is real and it has amazing effects on on the quality of life that. it's something that everybody should try they should try to where they get to that point where they experience that because anybody that doesn't is really missing out on something that is right there for the taking. what i

hadn't expected was this marathon becoming about so much more than getting fit that running would get under my skin so in completely. the training forwards and finishing it would push my body but more importantly my mind so places it had never been before now initially when i finished this run i was talking just have come through it's been one pace but very quickly a sense of restlessness sets in almost depression as i started to question what i've just done. should i have run better should i have trained harder would i be faster in the future. i realized then as many others have before me. finishing a race is gravy and more often it's just a detour on the way to the next one.

or. have i once again right has developed in a storm system somewhere around turkey police it's a pretty big dimples in cyprus in southern turkey where there is still flooding on the drive of this rotting will stay further north so the over it has brought rain through devon and syria bought some we get to midlist the day is really spread right across it's going through syria always except for the final sneeze lying in northern iraq with snow on the high ground across the border in iran trying to push up towards wiser as well sensible this is a much quieter picture we're drawing but it was that to give kuwait twenty three degrees the sun's out through most of iran is quite possible see the rain return possibly snow as well by the time we get to friday when the sun cusp in and beyond the arabian peninsula apart from a shower to possible in the red sea in that massive cloud there is a largely dried picture the breeze is no longer blowing harshly down the gulf there

might pick up for the weekend and temperatures are but what they should be his time of year the showers that we saw only three days ago was quite heavy once the culture in the horn of africa have gone just climbed the heaviest rain he's of course where it should be no life now and go to cross to tanzania or madagascar but some pretty potent shots are still there daily in the eastern side of south africa . whether online i want to start here on my laptop with a tweet or if you joined us on sat there was a rush of adrenaline would be felt this was the moment that we have been waiting for this is a dialogue the government has cool face i may go protest and instructed police to use force to disperse the crowds everyone has a voice and for votes and lots of different reasons what's the difference hard to

join the global conversation on how to zero. in every rekey new sign who brings a series of breaking stories joined the listening post as we turn the cameras on the media and focus on how they report on the stories that matter the most on al-jazeera. we have a good study says. president says he's pulling u.s. troops out of syria but the pentagon says not so fast. i'm richelle carey this is al jazeera live from doha also coming up the presidential election in the democratic republic of congo is in doubt a poll scheduled for sunday may not happen speaking live with one of the opposition

leaders. the reality is that the labor process it's a sham. in many woman prevented for.