Ian Sharman: I started running in the UK in 2005 after seeing a documentary about the famous multi-stage 'Marathon des Sables' which I signed up for, feeling the need to get back in shape after living a typical London professional life. In training for that race I quickly got addicted to marathons and ultras so I started running them almost every weekend, but I reason that there are worse things to be obsessed with. I even ran in various costumes to break some fun Guinness World Records. So for years I used races as a way to see the world, running over 150 marathons and ultras across five continents. Of all those races, the Comrades 55 mile (89km) Ultramarathon in South Africa is the one I struggle to stay away from, with a best time of 6:01...so far.

Then I met a girl, moved to the US to get married and have been based on the west coast since 2009, now in beautiful Oregon ultra country. After a year or so of everyone around me treating the 100-miler as 'the' ultra distance, I got lucky in the Western States lottery and have now become a serial 100-miler, with two top 10 finishes at that race. 100 miles seems to suit me and I managed to run the fastest 100-mile trail run ever in the US at the 2011 Rocky Raccoon 100, in 12:44.

I write a regular blog and I am also an endurance coach, so it's lucky my wife doesn't run much or I'd never stop talking about ultras.

Blog http://sharmanian.blogspot.com and coaching website: http://www.sharmanian.com