Squeezing two runs into a three-day ‘holiday’ when you’ve already cycled close to 125 miles isn’t an ideal situation. Needs must, though – a need that is a looming Bob Graham round. It was dark when I set off along the promenade from Chez Cockroach towards Alcudia. I ran for 15 minutes, the lights of…
Category: Running
South of England Cross Country Championships 2012
The South of England Cross Country Championships – the ‘southerns’ – is a January barometer of fitness and fight, a race in which the weak of spirit can find themselves painfully exposed. South of England, in a running context, means everything below an imaginary line drawn between Bristol and The Wash. That swathe of England…
Winter Tanners 2012 results
The results for the Winter Tanners have finally appeared. It was not a race – the LDWA make that abundantly clear. Still, it is good to compare yourself with others. And comparing myself with others, I did alright: second, in fact, in 4 hours, 20 minutes. I trailed the leader by two minutes; he was…
Box Hill fell race 2012
Today was my third Box Hill fell race. I clocked 62.52 in 2008, 57.23 in 2011. I was quicker still today, breaking the line in 55,45. With this rate of progress, I’ll break the course record in about 2017. Every runner wants to develop, to be faster, but it doesn’t get any easier. I strode…
There’s always someone madder…
Running around Tooting Bec Common tonight, still bathing in the warm glow of my newly-annointed status of ultrarunner, I remembered that however far you run, however fast you go and however heroic your exploits, there’s always someone madder. That runner’s got an unusual style, I thought, as a lean fellow came bounding towards me. He…
Winter Tanners: six days to go
By this time next week I might just have the smug satisfaction of being able to call myself an ultrarunner – and no longer a mere marathoner. By this time next week – as a consequence – I imagine I’ll also be in a great deal of pain. An ultramarathon is classified as anything longer…
The New Year’s Day run
With a big year of sporting endurance ahead (more of that in due course), I had to start 2012 as I mean to go on. That meant braving the wind and rain lashing the Fylde coast. The stretch from St Annes pier to Blackpool’s South Pier, along the beach, was straightforward. Although, I’m glad I…
The best place to run in Britain
The best city for running? The answer is subjective, of course. Who am I (or anyone else, for that matter) to suggest Nottingham is better than Norwich, or Dundee is better than Derby. We all have favourite places, whether we’ve lived there for 50 years or once passed through on a sunny afternoon and thought:…
The underrated hills of Bowland
My Christmas mini-tour of Britain took me to Lancashire for the height of the festive season. I was on the Fylde coast, more famous for its illuminations and fairground attractions than its ranges of hills and mountains. Immediately east of the M6 is the Forest of Bowland, however, a wild jumble of hills rising, in…
‘Tough little buggers’
The Bob Graham round has dominated the outdoors news this week. First US ultra-runner Nick Clark ran through atrocious weather to Wasdale before calling it a day. Then two members of Cockermouth mountain rescue team got all the way round with minutes to spare. The challenge set by Rob and I seemed meagre in comparison:…
The world’s most beautiful silouette?
With a Bob Graham recce – utterly weather dependent, of course – scheduled for Friday, a yomp (with 500 metres of overall height gain) over Worcestershire Beacon was a sensible preparatory exercise. I ran from Malvern itself, climbing North Hill via a zigzagging path to a wind-blasted summit. It was beautiful. A retreating sun was…
Preparing to meet Bob
I am taking Askwithian advice when it comes to training for my Bob Graham round (pencilled in for spring 2012): ‘The only regimes that work are those that you can accommodate in your life.’ The question is, how much can I physically (and emotionally) accommodate? It is a gruelling undertaking training for a 70-mile run that involves thousands of…
Heights of Madness 