Blog posts tagged 'scenery'

My first visit to Cape Town was back in 2013 - a few days of doing as little as possible before Comrades in Durban. As it was June, it was Winter in the Southern Hemisphere and out of season (a very cheap time to visit!) so you can't rely on the weather helping you out. But I got pretty lucky; every morning my fellow hotel resident couple would forlornly tell me the Robben Island Ferry had been ca…

This was to be an epic year of ultras - I had 10 booked in at the start of 2016. Far too many, especially as I had the 4-race Centurion 50-mile grand slam nestling uncomfortably close to Lavaredo and The Cape Town 100k.  I'm sat on the plane to the latter as I write this, with 2016's plans in the kind of disarray that an unattended puppy is liable to leave your newspaper.  My amazing ultra-runni…

There are a couple of races that are permanent fixtures on my calendar each year.  Assuming, that is, I don't oversleep and miss them - they both go like hot cakes among people who have only just discovered cake, and could do with a bit of warming up. One's the Auld Lang Syne fell race in Haworth and the other is this gem - the Northumberland Coastal from Beadnell to Almnouth on the beautiful Nor…

A couple of weeks ago my Singapore-dwelling cousin, whom I've only seen once in about 10 years got married in Lesaka, Spain. I've met the fella even less - once in fact - during a flying visit en route to Australia, but he plied me with so much beer to counter the stifling humidity that it feels like a lot more somehow. My aunt's from Lesaka and my uncle wasn't about to let his only daughter get w…

This has been my year-ender for 5 years now. It's an absolute belter and well worth the long trip up from Windsor to Haworth. I've taken to staying a night or two beforehand at the excellent Fleece Inn in the High Street to save crazy early travelling and, more to the point, justify a pint of Boltmaker the night before.Haworth had been hit by the floods - the refurbished-at-a-cost-of-£250K pub at…

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…

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 …

Transvulcania is still 7 months off but starting training yesterday seems like a good idea and I'm upping the hills, long runs and trails.  I should have been running Berlin today but I pulled that for lack of a hope in hell of a pb and decided on the spur of the moment run the Purbeck Hills from Swanage to Weymouth.  Not entirely sure where the idea came from.  I've only been to Swanage once b…

I ran this marathon for the first time last year and had been looking forward to having another go at it.  Both times it's served as a long training run rather than a race but as I went out extremely slowly last year I was confident I'd go faster this time out.  Did that happen? Read on and find out! But no, it didn't.You can't beat trail running in this fantastic weather.  Sunday was a perfect…

This is one of my favourite races.  For a start it means a trip to the Toon or more specifically Whitley Bay to crash out at one of my oldest friends' place, strategically located a mere 5 minute walk from the fantastic Rockliffe Arms.  Your man is a runner with North Shields Poly and that means the club bus to and from the race with a great bunch of people all capable of drinking like a desicca…