25th June, 2017
SiS (Science in Sport) generously sent me some samples of their caffeinated energy gels recently and I've spent the last couple of weeks trying them out. The original plan was to use them during the comprehensive set of long runs needed to build up for the Lakeland 50 in July and the CCC in August but.. as bad luck would have it, I've gone down with some heel-related niggle which has made a bonf…
26th April, 2017
Somehow, despite a lot of years of chasing all over the place to run marathons, I've never run the most famous of the lot, Boston. So I decided that before my interest in road running disappears, I had to get it done and see for myself what all the hype was about.You have to qualify to get in (is there anyone out there didn't know that?!) but fortunately age is kind on this one single aspect of li…
20th March, 2017
Some races Susie talks me into are ridiculously hard; some relatively 'easy'. It's the good cop bad cop routine, as used by the Stasi. But in this case even the good cop is peddling a marathon in the Cyprus sun.Some contrast to Haworth last weekend, this! The misty moors and trails to the heat (warmth really; it never was to get completely boiling) of the seaside road course of the Limassol …
14th March, 2017
The longer you race, the more important food becomes and there are some events out there that put on a spectacular feed! I've known runners, mid-race, kept alive only by a trance-like state induced by thoughts of the free cake lying in wait for them at the finish.So I thought I'd present my top 5 and if you're one of these odd people that thinks the food is some kind of a sideshow, an afterthought…
11th May, 2016
I caught up with an old friend of mine, Gareth, in Costa today by chance and we talked about - would you believe it? - running! The conversation at one point was about marathons and did I still fancy having a go at a fast one. It's 8 years since the PB in Amsterdam - I spent a few since trying to break it but frustratingly without success despite being in form. But that's the marathon for you. Any…
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…
19th June, 2015
I like to think I'm half decent at road running but in the last few years I've gravitated to the trails and, more recently, the mountains where what road 'skills' I have vanish like Pringles. Every recent race has been an education.I used to be obsessed with times and searching for the flattest half marathon or marathon course, but such ephemera have pretty much gone (I'm still planning on one l…
10th May, 2015
This race earned its place in my bucket list ever since seeing a YouTube video of the start a couple of years back. The image of a river of headtorch lightrails streaming up the climb out of Fuencaliente in the pre dawn sealed the deal for me there and then. I'm sitting on a bench in the town square, the finish gantry and podium backdrop the only props left from Saturday's carnival. I'm trying …
4th March, 2015
There's a rich seam of races that abandon the traditional trimmings of medals and goody bags and are instead intent on stuffing more cake calories into you than you could burn off if you ran the event twice. That's just fine by me. Mike Wells (also running today, in the 15-miler and a tutu) put me on to this one and I was keen to see how it compared to the plated lunch at the Woodhouse Challenge…
1st December, 2014
My Autumn marathon was intended to be Berlin but having run a whole bunch of ultras earlier in the year, not least 70 miles at Thunder Run, it was impossible to fit enough speedwork in to make a decent go of it. I'd not paid the hotel bill and even half the flight cost was refundable and with basic maths working out that Florence could be paid for with the refund that became plan B.I've run Berl…