27th March, 2016
Way back when my race bucket list was more of a quick scrawl on the back of a fag packet, I'd only heard of two races in South Africa - Comrades and Two Oceans and down they duly went. There are plenty more classics than that I've since discovered and I will be having a crack at the Otter Trail and the Ultra Trail Cape Town 100km in due course. Not so sure about the Washie 100 but who knows? Maybe…
31st May, 2014
There's something about Comrades that draws you back. Many things. When you've run your first one you get your one and only shot at a back-to-back medal by taking on the race in the opposite direction and that proved irresistible. But it's not just a bit of (small!) bling, it's the draw of taking on one of the World's most iconic races cheered on by huge, passionate crowds drawn from every b…
16th May, 2014
In just over a week I head back out to the fabulous South Africa for another crack at the Comrades Ultra. It feels like it's sprung out of nowhere as the TP100 race has dominated my thoughts for the past few months but this isn't a race that deserves second billing. There's unfinished business after the shoe debacle last year plus the battering from the elements and, assuming there's been su…
3rd May, 2014
Yesterday I attempted my first 100-miler, running the Thames Path 100 (TP100) along the course of the Thames from Richmond to Oxford. I was going to write that things didn't go as planned but there was precious little evidence of a plan beforehand though finishing the race would certainly have been in there had there been. To cut to the chase I ended up dropping out at the Henley checkpoint 51 m…
3rd November, 2013
Total cock up with the Loughborough Half - I thought it was the 23rd Feb when I booked it! So that's looking dodgy!I'd love to go for a full-on effort in London but it's only 3 weeks before a 100. I'm hoping that as that's so much slower-paced that's long enough to recover. I will try to keep some speedwork going throughout and up it from March for London. Reckon you hang on to endurance so …
16th October, 2013
There's still plenty of 2013 to go and a target marathon to attack in 10 days but I've started filling out 2014's diary. Looking at the races already booked in I can't help but think these are distances and challenges I couldn't and wouldn't have even considered a couple of years ago and yet here they are back to back!Something seems to have switched in my head and the more outlandish runs are n…
20th September, 2013
This June was all about running the Comrades Ultra in South Africa. The biggest ultra in the world. 14,000+ people running 54 miles over some serious terrain, with most aiming simply to break the 12 hour cut-off.The entries have just opened for the 2014 edition; this time a down-run from Pietermaritzburg to Durban on the coast. As I write this I'm considering whether to go back and have another …
3rd June, 2013
So this is it. Sunday starts at 3am and we have to be in the start pen by 5:15am otherwise you start from the back. We have a taxi ordered and experience of Durban cabbies has made us extremely dubious of any promises they make, even in standard office hours, let lone crack of dawn runs into the centre of town. But, we seem to end up picking cabs from the same company over the past few days and …
28th May, 2013
So finally, 9 months after being talked into running this race and ticking it off the bucket list by my friend Helen who's here too, it's time to pack the bags and head out to South Africa.I cannot think of any race I've done, and I have entered a lot since I went for my first London Marathon in 2000, where the anticipation has reached anything like this pitch. I guess that first London would be…
26th May, 2013
I decided on the Oxon 40 as the lastlong training run for the Comrades. It's local being just past and around Henley and compared to the alternatives available on the same day it was incredibly cheap at just £12. The sort of price you might expect to hear from your Grandparents in the context of 'eee I remember when races were just £12, and bread was 3d and we all had to live in a shoebox'. …