My wife was racing in Surrey. I found myself on Box Hill. Just me, a baby and a running buggy. Ordinarily, the baby (my daughter, I hasten to add) goes to sleep the instant the buggy begins to move. She can cry hysterically during the insertion process, but move the thing a millimetre and it…
Author: heightsofmadness
The greedy runner
I have been greedy. Not food greedy. Although that isn’t strictly true. I blame my wife; she didn’t need to make a cake today. I mean running greedy. Time greedy. Seven days of running before today had featured, by day and in order: a nine mile cross country race; 16 miles at a fair pace;…
Mud, mud, glorious mud: the 2014 South of England cross country championship
Parliament Hill on the day of the South of England cross country championship. Our warm-up has been broken by a stream of women racers crossing the path ahead. We pause to watch the gritty, multi-coloured procession. After negotiating the path, the women descend slightly into a hollow of sludge of unknown depths. At the centre…
‘I was there…’ Marking 125 years of Herne Hill Harriers
The year is 1889, a time before television, tea bags and Twitter. Queen Victoria is the monarch; Jack the Ripper is stalking the East End; Britain rules a third of the globe. In Milkwood Road, Herne Hill, an institution is born: an athletics club called Herne Hill Harriers. There was war and peace, Bing Crosby…
A silver lining at the Surrey cross country championship
I am not going to romanticise cross country. It would be easy, though. Cross country is real running, the pursuit of the running purist, the preserve of the tough. I will stop there because the romantic idea of cross country at the quagmire of Denbies Vineyard lasted about three minutes yesterday. However, In these three…
‘Do you want beans with that?’ A tribute to Stan Allen
Athletics has lost Stan Allen. With his passing, a part of Herne Hill Harriers has died. Stan was an athlete, coach and wordsmith, but – more important than splits and positions – he was a shining example of humanity. His association with Herne Hill Harriers spanned an astonishing 62 years. I knew Stan only in his twilight years,…
A wet and wild start to 2014 at the Serpentine New Year’s Day 10k
There have been some inspirational athletic feats in Hyde Park over the past 18 months. Not me. Not today. Hyde Park – the grey setting of the annual Serpentine New Year’s Day 10k – was wet, windswept and wild. The new year had awoken with a hangover. Some races you enjoy; some you endure. Today…
The myth of ‘I can’t run fast…’
In a decade-and-a-half of running that has encompassed road, cross country and fell, and spanned 10k, marathon and ultramarathon (and everything in between), I never believed I could run very fast, that is relatively very fast for me, over short distances. The demands of running long distances would inevitably counter my ability to master 5k…
Running and writing: top tips from the Write This Run conference
Write This Run, which, funnily enough, unites writing and running in both an online, virtual community and at real life conferences, is one of those annoyingly good ideas that I wish I’d had. Laura Fountain and Liz Goodchild got their first. Incidentally, I know Laura from university a decade ago. Had I suggested she join…
Fell running and the Langdale Horseshoe: leaving behind the contrived world
There was no warning. I had hurtled downhill off the rough roof of Thunacar Knott and as I approached Martcrag Moor, the ground, previously solid, became liquid. Wooomph! I began to disappear. Calves gone. Knees gone. Thighs gone. Waist gone. Gasping, a thousand thoughts a moment, body flailing forward, legs scrambling for traction. Swimming, wriggling,…
Race report: Beachy Head Marathon 2013
I was standing at the finish line of the Beachy Head Marathon yesterday afternoon, discussing with other runners the merits of Richard Moore’s book on the 100m final at the 1988 Olympics, The Dirtiest Race in History. As the conversation fell quiet, I thought (and I appreciate this is a gross generalisation): what can we…
Beachy Head Marathon 2013 preview – the runners and riders
It is the annual Stuart Mills Processional Marathon on Saturday. Excuse my facetiousness, I mean the Beachy Head Marathon. For many years, the rollercoaster race along the South Downs Way and over the Seven Sisters was the most predictable in England. Mills dominated, winning seven times in nine years. Not last year, though. Rob Harley,…
Heights of Madness 