The publication of Isles at the Edge of the Sea is now just days away. These are exciting times. There are few more thrilling days for an author than these – when the anticipation of seeing a year of work come to fruition mingles with hopes and fears about the reception the book might receive. To get the ball rolling, here…
Category: Running
2.50.23
Marathons are cruel. They slowly but surely destroy participants, emotionally and physically. They wear down the mind, eat away at thoughts, until pre-race aspirations, hope, motivations are smashed. All that is left is a desire for this suffering to be over, and quickly. They wear down the body, finding little niggles that become groaning aches, before…
When time is all that matters
There was an advert – for Lucozade, I think – at Custom House, the DLR station for ExCel, that read: ‘ When all you think about for 3,29 is 3,29.’ What runner could not empathise with that? There lies a runner’s obsession: time. Tsegaye Kebede wants to break the world record tomorrow, dipping under 2,04 in the process….
Body falling apart
I knocked out 222 miles in February, 13 fewer than January (a month that was, however, three days longer). As you can see, I’ve become pedantic about mileage. My London Marathon training of years gone by has traditionally flagged in February, my efforts plagued by injury or plunging motivation. Not this year, it seems. Not so far. With the marathon now six-and-a-half…
Roding Valley half-marathon
There are plenty of pre-London Marathon half-marathons to test one’s mettle: Bath, Brighton, Fleet, Reading, Silverstone. Unfortunately, they are/were all fully subscribed. Hence I found myself in Essex today, taking part in the 29th annual edition of the Roding Valley half-marathon. After running a short loop around Woodford, we commenced a long loop, with the…
The pain game
I’ve had various brushes with sports therapists over the years – the consequence of bursting the fluid on a knee cap, general knee pain (tight IT band to blame), plantar fasciitis (five weeks before a marathon), scar tissue on the soleus and badly bruising a knee cap (the other one) in a fall on snowy ground. So…
January – a month of mileage
Marathon training continues apace; the prospect of a comfortable sub-three hour time becoming ever likelier. I covered 235 miles in January, which included weeks of 45, 49, 55 and 59 miles. The pattern was not deliberate. The month culminated with the South of England cross country championships, a nine-mile battle of attrition and mud around…
Box Hill fell race 2011
‘This is a proper fell race,’ a fellow runner declared in the minutes before the Box Hill fell race. ‘Proper’ fell race? In Surrey? On a 224-metre hill? How I scoffed. A scoff of a man who believed he was qualified to scoff, a veteran of Ben Nevis, Jura and Slioch – actual ‘proper’ hill races….
Pain by the Thames
No more dreams. Only the grim reality of a five-mile Surrey League fixture at Ham, a muddy cross-country on the banks of the River Thames. These Surrey League races are fast and frenetic; it is no wonder when runners of the ilk of Phil Wicks – a man who can run a sub-29 minute 10k…
Running in my dreams
As if running 50-odd miles a week wasn’t enough, I’ve now started running in my sleep. I am currently taking part – unwillingly so – in a 5km race series. It started on Wednesday night when I won race one, completing the course in a modest 17 minutes-something. Last night’s events started on the slopes of…
Sub-3 – seventh time lucky?
Having ran four Flora’s, it is time for a Virgin. The London Marathon on April 17 – 14-and-a-half weeks away – will be my seventh attempt at the 26.2-mile distance. The marathon, however, has been my nemesis, a constant bridge too far. I ran 3,40s in my first two races during a period when times concerned me…
Heights of Madness 