Team Christian is a group of elite endurance athletes who train under the supervision of child prodigy Christian Blandford.

Christian is widely regarded as one of the World’s most innovative sports scientists and is able to combine an encyclopaedic knowledge of biomechanics with an intuitive understanding of human psychology.

Team Christian are currently undergoing intensive final preparations for the 2008 Flora London marathon and, whilst the location of the T.C training camp remains a tightly guarded secret, you can keep up with developments here.

You can Support the team by donating directly to the Christian Blandford fund using the donate link to the left or, if you prefer, you can use just giving. Bob’s page is here.

Team Christian are:

Bob Ford

Graham Ford

Simon Desborough

HERE ARE SOME NOTES TO FINISH IT OFF.

The morning after:

Good news from Team Christian… All three runners finished with Personal Bests:

Bob: 3 hours 47 minutes.
Graham: 3 hours 57 minutes.
Des: 4 hours 11 minutes.

Here is a picture of Bob at 25 miles…

Ouch!

As usual Christian has been busying himself with detailed post-race analysis. See below a race chart which confirms Bob’s dominance of arch rival, and former Boyzone front man, Ronan Keating:

Thanks to everyone who supported Team Christian in 2008.

T Minus 2 days and counting

We’d be lying if we didn’t admit to a few superstitions in the final moments of training.

Graham tends to spend his time cultivating ‘chafe’ body art.

Graham’s legs.

It’s apparent that Bob has taken a solemn vow to neither think of, or speak about, anything except the race and has taken to repeating a single mantra, such as “it’s a sharp pain right behind the balls” for long periods.

Simon will normally choose between a bout of flu or serious back problems but this time round he’s been enjoying both experiences simultaneously.

We had a visit from Chris Moyles.

Good news on the R&D side:

Christian completed his much-anticipated research into accelerated colour schemes ® and confirmed that the fastest colour combination in the known universe is 93% Black and 7% Various. Consequently Bob will be wearing these shoes:

And this shirt:

Thanks for supporting Team Christian.

W/C 01.04.08: T minus 2 weeks, and counting.           

We are very sorry to confirm recent press speculation that Simon (Des) has failed a drug test. Unfortunately we still don’t have all the information but feel that it’s important to be clear about what we do know at this stage. In September 2007, on his return from Team Christian’s state-of-the-art heat acclimatisation centre in Ibiza, Des was subject to a routine urine screening. The results of the test are not conclusive but at the moment Des stands accused of taking a cocktail of substances designed to enhance the users’ enjoyment of the repetitive aspects of their training. Team Christian’s zero tolerance policy with regard to the use of performance enhancing drugs has been well reported and is unequivocal. We must stress that we have challenged the results of Des’ test and feel confident that the “B-Test” will clear his name.

This week the rest of the team have been concentrating on resistance training:

W/C 17.03.08: T minus 4 weeks, and counting.           

Good news – Bob has made a remarkable recovery from his illness. So much so that during yesterday’s intensive session at our facility in Rye he set an unofficial (wind assisted) World Record for the half marathon.
News from the rest of the camp is less encouraging. Christian and Graham have carried out a series of intensive sports psychology sessions after Graham reported a recurrence of his sexuality issues. The problem seems to be consistent with the situation that caused Graham to miss the Athens Olympics in 2004 and as such we are very concerned. It seems that under race conditions Graham finds himself glancing at all the other boys in their tight running shorts. As far as we can understand this then leads to a series of involuntary impure thoughts, a strange tingling sensation in the groin and subsequently an inability to focus on the race plan. Christian has suggested a course of aversion therapy and Graham is currently training closely with Simon ‘in isolation’.

W/C 10.03.08: T minus 5 weeks, and counting.           

It’s been a mixed week for Team Christian.
Graham and Simon are going from strength to strength but we’re sorry to report that Bob’s training has suffered a serious set back…
Bob returned from altitude training in the Alps complaining of ‘feeling a little poorly’ and ‘not being his usual self’. By Tuesday night the situation was looking pretty serious and Bob was raced to the hospital where he was diagnosed with a dangerous combination of two rare conditions; ‘the comm. O. N c-o-l-d’ and ‘Ijustneedsomeattentionandacuddle’. Thankfully we’ve had access to state-of-the-art medical facilities and some of the best brains in British science and have been able to stabalise Bob’s condition via a complex combination of treatments; primarily “phenoxymethyl p “ and “Dihydrogen monoxide” (Penicillin and Water).
At the time of writing Team Christian is delighted to report that Bob is being a brave little soldier and may yet recuperate sufficiently to receive his knighthood from the Queen this Thursday.