Nov 20, 2016 · 6 minute read · Comments
I’m starting to sound like a bit of a stuck record but, somehow, coming into this race I was even more tired than any of my previous races so far this year and feeling completely knackered. During the past week leading up to the race I was twice called out for work at night, my IT band issues since Downslink haven’t gone away and then from Thursday I’ve had a trapped nerve in my back, causing spasming pains every now and then all down my right side.
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Oct 15, 2016 · 2 minute read · Comments
It’s been a hectic last few weeks with Downslink and Laura’s PhD viva in windy Dundee as well as buying and moving into our first house and I’m really feeling the effects of this year. With Laura’s successful viva defence this has also brought with it a date for her well deserved graduation, unfortunately clashing with Wendover Woods.
I’ve scurried around looking for other races still open for November and come across the Beacons Ultra, which describes itself as:
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Oct 2, 2016 · 5 minute read · Comments
Strava route for Downslink 2016 Coming in to Downslink I was even more tired than at Chiltern Wonderland with that still in my legs from a couple of weeks ago plus a long trip to Dundee for Laura’s PhD viva. The only thing in my favour for this was it was going to be a reasonably short one and as it followed the old Downslink rail path into Shoreham should be about as flat a race as I’m ever likely to get.
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Sep 18, 2016 · 7 minute read · Comments
About a week ago I was going over the course details and mandatory kit when all of a sudden Laura pointed out that the race was listed as a 4 point qualifier for the UTMB. For those that don’t know, to enter the Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc, a 103 mile race through the Alps climbing nearly 10000 metres, you need to have accumulated 9 points across 3 races in the last 2 years.
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Aug 14, 2016 · 9 minute read · Comments
Pretty much the opposite weather to the last time I was down in the South West for an ultramarathon and yet still made much, much harder by the weather. This time struggling through 7+ hours of sapping heat as I climbed up and down the South West Coast Path from St Anthony Head, across the bay from Falmouth, to just outside St Austell.
Getting to the race HQ early on Saturday morning for registration and kit check we were rewarded with an absolutely stunning sunrise:
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Aug 1, 2016 · 14 minute read · Comments
So this was it: the second biggest race of the year for me. Complete this and I’d be more than halfway through this year of ultramarathons and have broken the back of the challenge. I knew this would be hard, particularly towards the end as my body began to give up but the last 10 miles in particular were especially difficult as I completely fell apart while struggling alone in the dark trying not to get lost.
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Jul 2, 2016 · 2 minute read · Comments
So it’s been 4 weeks since Shires and Spires and after taking a much needed rest from running I’ve done pretty much nothing since. In a normal year this wouldn’t bother me all that much as I’ve always been slow to recover from these kind of races, both physically and mentally. Unfortunately I don’t really have time to take a break from the running this year because the races just keep coming and coming.
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Jun 5, 2016 · 3 minute read · Comments
Yet another absolutely stunning day out in north west Northamptonshire.
This was the third time that I’ve done Shires and Spires now, going back to my first ever ultramarathon back in 2012, just 5 weeks after my first marathon - London - and each time it’s been an absolutely gorgeous day far better suited to a relaxed walk or a lazy day in a pub garden somewhere drinking fruit ciders or Pimms.
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May 23, 2016 · 3 minute read · Comments
Being rudely awoken at 3:30 am on the first day of my holiday in the Lakes wasn’t exactly the best start to a holiday I’ve ever had but after nearly 8 hours of trundling wearily up and down the fells I’ve now managed to tick off 5 ultras in 2016.
The start I’m not sure if it was a combination of the early start or how exhausted I’ve been in the last few weeks with work and recovering from the Fellsman last month but I certainly wasn’t feeling all that great on the trip over from our cottage in Ambleside to Keswick for the race start.
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Apr 18, 2016 · 18 minute read · Comments
21 hours 26 minutes of shuffling, getting back to Threshfield just as dawn was breaking I’ve finally beaten the Fellsman, making up for my only ever DNF 2 years ago.
(watch battery died mid way round)
Last time on CSI Miami the Fellsman Back in 2014 I had my first stab at the Fellsman and turned up massively underprepared and overly confident. Having completed Stour Valley Path 100km I thought to myself that I could do the distance and it was just a case of walking the uphills and following some experienced people across the hard to navigate Fleet Moss, worst case scenario it was going to be 19-20 hours out on my feet.
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Apr 11, 2016 · 2 minute read · Comments
In a week’s time I’ll hopefully be coming up to Fleet Moss, ready for the long, cold night ahead of me after already completing 12 hours of hard running up and down some of the biggest mountains in Yorkshire. Well, probably not running.
Considering how badly the Fellsman went for me back in 2014 I’m pretty bloody terrified. The fact that I’ve managed to somehow put in less hours of training this year than two years ago only makes the whole thing more awful really.
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Mar 14, 2016 · 2 minute read · Comments
25% of the way there!
The long climb up to Top Withens from the start once again felt hard due to the near constant climbing plus the general tightness in cold calves not yet warmed up and trying not to get to carried away in the first half hour of a 6+ hour run.
The climbs up to Stoodley Pike, out of Heptonstall and up through Hardcastle Crags all felt long and torturous but actually, looking back at my times for the sections they weren’t as slow as they felt at the time.
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Feb 8, 2016 · 8 minute read · Comments
An altogether different race than Country to Capital. Although my finishing time of 7 hours 38 minutes was similar-ish to the 7 hours 25 of Country to Capital the two races could barely have been more different. While Country to Capital was largely flat, on easily covered ground and in pleasant weather, this one was a shorter race with plenty of technical trail, the odd punishing climb and probably the worst weather I’ve voluntarily gone out in during my entire life.
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Jan 17, 2016 · 4 minute read · Comments
Well, that’s one down!
7 hours and 25 minutes of plodding through beautiful countryside and some mind-numbingly boring canal tow path (more on that later) I’ve ticked the first ultramarathon of the year off and all without any obvious injury. So that seems like a win to me.
Prior to Country to Capital I’d had the pleasure of twice running both the Shires and Spires and the Thames Trot ultras that Go Beyond organise and really enjoyed both events so I was looking forward to a good day out across the Chilterns.
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Jan 14, 2016 · 2 minute read · Comments
In about 36 hours I’ll be setting off from Wendover at the start of Country to Capital, kicking off my daft challenge of running an ultramarathon every month in 2016.
Just thinking about it now is filling me with a mixture of excitement and fear. But mostly fear. Because I’m really not very good at this whole running far thing.
It probably doesn’t help that my training up to this point has been essentially nothing having only twice cleared the half marathon distance in training since the Snowdonia marathon way back in October.
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Dec 16, 2015 · 3 minute read · Comments
So at some point a few months ago, just after securing my entry for the Lakeland 50, I realised that the first half of 2016 was shaping up to look very crowded with ultramarathons. Thinking about how difficult I have typically found it to recover from ultra running I briefly considered dialling back everything I had planned so I could give myself the best possible chance of finishing Lakeland 50 and also having another crack at Fellsman after my failed attempt back in 2014.
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