Hi my name is Greg Wilson, I am planning to participate in the 2011 edition of the Kiliman Adventure Challenge. Christina asked me to write something about myself and the training I am doing to prepare for the Kiliman.

So here goes. I am a US citizen currently working and residing with my family in Saudi Arabia and work for the oil & gas company Saudi Aramco as a Loss Prevention Engineer. I enjoy the outdoors and anything that has to do with moving through it, below it or above it. I am an active runner, cyclist, swimmer, scuba diver, trekker, and when near facilities a tennis player and golfer. Unfortunately, the winds of time are slowing me down so even though I prepare to compete in events I find that now I get the most out them just participating and enjoying the moments. Anyway, that’s the story I will stick with to justify any poor times I might post.

As far as training, my training is going well at this point as I am now fully recovered from the broken collar bone I suffered in a bicycle crash last June during a training ride. (I hit the pavement at 38KPH, good thing I was wearing a helmet because I landed directly on my head then shoulder). But I did manage one month later to run the 42K Voyager trail marathon in Duluth Minnesota USA in July, it was very painful on my shoulder but I pushed through and finished the course. I was also able to do some trekking and climbing over the summer visiting Zion National Park in Utah USA summiting Angels Landing (368 m) again. Angels Landing even though only 368 m is a strenuous little hike it only takes about 4-5 hours to go up and down but the view of the canyon from the top is amazing. (see web address below) It seems that I can never go up there enough. A week later we visited Mt. Charleston in southern Nevada near the famous city of Las Vegas and climbed up to Charleston Peak (3632 m). Our summit day was about 14 hours up and down, we had to carry all our water because there is no water on the trail, this was really tough on my not yet completely healed collar bone. But as usual, it was worth it as the summit provided a beautiful view down the canyon leading into the Las Vegas Valley.

[1] http://voyageurtrailrun.com/?page_id=21

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angels_Landing

[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Charleston

I am now back to running over 50K per week and cycling over 200K per week, swimming is still tough on my my shoulder but it seems to be improving all the time and I am incrementally increasing distance each week per my tri/marathon/cycle training program in continuing preparation for the upcoming local race season here in Saudi Arabia. I have several races coming up before coming to Africa in February including two triathlons, a sprint and olympic length, a couple of single stage cycle races and the Dubai marathon on January 21. So if I don’t injure myself before coming to Africa at the end of February I should be in great shape.

[4] http://www.dubaimarathon.org/

[5]