What is my biggest fear about running the Vanguard Way? Completing the full 66 miles? Eating and drinking enough to sustain myself for 10 hours? Conquering 1800 metres of thigh-shredding ascent and descent? I can prepare for those eventualities. A far more unpredictable proposition awaits: the fauna of Sussex and Surrey. My first encounter with…
Category: England
Losing my innocence on Wainwrights’ fells
It was a late-October day in 2003 when I climbed my first Wainwright fell. Not that I knew at the time. Not that I cared. I was among a group of five university friends, who – without the benefit of a map – had crawled up the side of Lingmell. I forged ahead and summited alone, unwittingly…
Can running ever be ‘fun’?
In Charlie Spedding’s very good First to Last he observes for years how he’d rated many of his training sessions as ‘not bad’. His conclusion was that to use a negative adjective to describe something that was ultimately a positive and an enormous part of his life and living was psychologically counter-productive. This realisation helped…
The madness of the ultra distance runner
‘Busy weekend?’ the Friday conversation goes. ‘I’m going to Jurassic Encounter Adventure Golf at New Malden on Saturday, then, on Sunday, I’ll run…’ ‘How far?’ Sharp intake of breath. ‘Forty…’ ‘Miles?’ ‘Yes.’ I’ve had this conversation many times over the years. Or certainly words to this effect, as this will be my first visit to Jurassic Encounter…
Running the 66-mile Vanguard Way: 24 days to go
I’ve been a lazy runner this week. Lazy in updating this blog: there was no 26 or 25 days to go. Lazy in running: three days, two runs, 14 miles, all easy, nothing taxing. Lazy in eating: I’ve been consuming too freely and too much junk (biscuits, chocolate and so on) – a notion (when…
Running the 66-mile Vanguard Way: 27 days to go
Following yesterday’s 30 miles, I had run 60 miles for the week. I had planned to run a few loosening, slow miles to claim a 100km week – before thinking better of it. Up to three weeks ago, I was unwell and running haphazardly. I’m lucky to have survived 60 miles and I’m well aware…
Running the 66-mile Vanguard Way: 29 days to go
Another day, another run, another 24 hours closer to 66 miles. A light effort was all that was required today: five-ish miles of watch-free, undulating trail in the pleasanter environs of Croydon, taking my weekly total to 30. I have more serious business tomorrow: a run of somewhere between 25 and 35 miles depending on…
Three Forts Marathon and the need for constancy
The essence of Nick Hornby’s Fever Pitch is that Arsenal is the author’s constant in life. Amid the flux of education, work, relationships, happiness and sadness, Arsenal and football remain resilient to the vagaries of his existence. Running has been my constant since the age of 18. Through university, through jobs, through seasons, through highs…
South Downs Way 50: over before it began
Three unfortunate things happened this week: Monday – I drive from Lancashire to London. As I leave St Annes on Sea on the Fylde coast, I reset the mileage clock to zero. I watch as the miles tick by. Reaching the end of the M55, I turn right onto the M6, cross over the River…
Pendle Fell Race 2013 – race report
It is the taking part that counts, isn’t it? Discounting the Box Hill Fell Race, it has been a while since I have run a proper hill or fell race. It showed. I was 66th at today’s Pendle Fell Race in Lancashire, a long way back from the action at the front. I should not…
How I almost won the Steyning Stinger Marathon
I could have won the Steyning Stinger Marathon. I should have won the Steyning Stinger Marathon. Had I been running the 2012 version, I would have been clear in first place by 18 minutes. As it was, I was 40 seconds behind yesterday’s deserved winner, Stuart Mills. Mills – known as UltraStu – is a…
The 66-mile running specialist
I’ve found a running niche. I am a 66-mile specialist. My training program is geared to running this exact distance, not a mile more, not a mile less. Apart from parkruns, cross countries, 10ks, half-marathons, marathons and ultra distances, I will only entertain 66-mile runs. The Bob Graham Round – all 66 miles of it…
Heights of Madness 