Lesley Bates meets the man who aims to get women's hearts racing this weekend.
LUDO Macaulay admits that when he asked colleagues in the Wiltshire Fire & Rescue Service for volunteers to cycle 5km chased by 1,200 lycra-clad women, there was no shortage of hands shooting up.
"Funnily enough, they like to help," he says.
Mr Macaulay, who is the sub-officer in charge of White Watch at Salisbury fire station, is the route planner for Salisbury's Race for Life in aid of Cancer Research UK, the women-only run that comes under starter's orders at Salisbury athletics track on Sunday.
When the Race for Life organisers first approached Salisbury district council, it pointed them in his direction.
He says that, because of safety issues, the police can be reluctant to issue new licences, but are happy to let those with good track records continue.
"They pulled me in as local adviser last year because I'm the only organiser of road races in the area," he explains.
"I head up a team within the fire service who organise events.
"It's something Salisbury does well and successfully."
Last year, around 560 women ran, jogged or walked around a course devised by Mr Macaulay when the Race For Life, an event that hopes to attract 325,000 nationwide, came to Salisbury for the first time.
This year, with the event scheduled for July 4, race organisers set the limit at 1,200 entries, reaching the target figure with eight weeks to spare and having to disappoint many who left their entries too late.
The course, he says, will be virtually the same as last year "with a little bolt-on of two thirds of the athletics track to thin the runners out at the start".
The main aims when determining a route are enjoyment and safety, he says.
It is his job to look at risk assessment, whether roads used are quiet, the route wide enough to take at least two people and whether it offers enough good views to make it enjoyable.
"The route goes around Hudson's Field and from the top you get a good view and can see all the other runners," he says.
The race starts and finishes at the athletics track and, just as last year, he will look at how it works, analyse the bottle-necks and tweak it again for next year, when even more women are expected to enter.
"We could go higher in numbers here," he says, " but if it gets big enough we'll look at another starting point."
Mr Macaulay has been organising runs and walks for more than two decades.
He is director of the fire service's Three Peaks Challenge, which is now 21 years old and sees more than 100 teams tackle Ben Nevis, Scafell and Snowdon in the space of 24 hours.
He is also instrumental in organising a 10km road race, now in its 15th year, in February, a 10-mile race in June and 54321, a popular half marathon-length trail walk, in August.
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