There is, it seems, a rule for anyone who wants to write a book about running. It must have the word ‘running’, ‘run’ or ‘ran’ in the title – just to leave the reader in no doubt about the subject matter. Eat and Run Running Hard Run Mummy Run Running High Run Wild Running for…
365 Days of Hill Running Wisdom – March
Day 61: An insight into the High Peak Marathon: ‘The descent off Lose Hill was something to behold – a frantic, impossibly slippy, muddy, vertical drop. Most logical humans would take their time to pick a good footing and a safe line off such a death trap – not so fell runners.’ Day 62: The…
Ultra running: the art of futility
On a particularly hot day in the summer of 2014, I ran between the summits of London’s 12 Inner London boroughs. Starting from Hammersmith and Fulham, moving clockwise to the Isle of Dogs, going as far east as Greenwich, and then west to Wimbledon Common, I travelled 41 miles, venturing no higher than 134 metres…
To go to the hills by any means is prose. But to run among them? This is poetry…
I have been running for almost 22 hours. Running is probably the wrong word. I have been moving – insistently moving over the summits of the 23 Munros that form the wild, high loop of Ramsay’s Round, Scotland’s classic 24-hour mountain running challenge. I am running down the rubble of the tourist track on Ben…
365 days of hill running wisdom – February
Day 32: ‘Fell running – the key to women’s lib’: ‘They achieve equality in running the same courses as men, getting equally wet and muddy as men, and running faster than men.’ Up and Down magazine, 1990. Day 33: ‘What is it about grassy knolls, viewpoints, or even Munros, that makes people instantly want to…
Why running is the ultimate adventure
It is 5am in the Scottish Highlands. The darkness is total; the temperature a few degrees above freezing. On this late-November morning, it will be three hours before dawn breaks. The silence is vast, only interrupted by the clacking of studded shoes on a single-track road. Suddenly, the clack is no more. The runner has…
What is it about the Carnethy 5?
The field lies open and exposed, looking up to Scald Law and Carnethy, the highest points of the brown and grey Pentland Hills. Above a saturated bog is a hummock of low grass, decorated by clumps of scruffy gorse. Runners cower in the vegetation, squatting on ground littered with sheep droppings, pinning numbers on vests,…
The race should be on the fells, not the web
Entry for the Ben Nevis Race opened on Sunday. Runners were told they had three days, until midday on Wednesday, to add their name to a pre-selection ballot. Hundreds signed up, enticed by the increased hype around this year’s race, partly due to its selection as a British championship event. I was among them. I…
365 days of hill running wisdom: January
Day 1: A rousing start to 2018 from @boffwhalley: ‘I found my feet again, tripping easily across loose rock 3,000 feet high, feeling closer to sky than sea. This body wasn’t stretching and pulling any more, it was singing its place on earth. Look at me, Ma! On top of the world!’ Day 2:@moireosullivan epitomises…
365 days of hill running – the first week
I am posting a daily quote in 2018, celebrating the brilliance, toughness and eccentricity of hill and fell running. The messages are posted each morning on Twitter at @MuirJonny. These are the quotes from the first week. Day 1: A rousing start to 2018 from @boffwhalley: ‘I found my feet again, tripping easily across loose…
Run Free
Think of it like this: imagine running starting again, every race beginning from scratch. How would we want the sport to be? Ian Campbell has a vision: ‘The revolution won’t have an online entry fee, plastic medal or pointless goodie bag.’ Lewis Breen has been running for 23-and-a-half hours. He would like to stop, but…
What to read when you read about hill running
WHAT TO READ WHEN YOU READ ABOUT HILL RUNNING Writing and running are activities connected by extended metaphor: while running is prose, hill (or fell) running is poetry. This sport, therefore, demands writing of the highest ilk. In the course of research for my own book on hill running, The Mountains Are Calling, I have…
Heights of Madness 