This one was not on the race calendar, even up to last month. The original plan had been to run the Highland Ultra in April, and to run the SDW50K a few weeks earlier in prep, and to run the Steyning Stinger marathon a month before in prep for that. But I decided on deferring…

Pronounced Stenning, the race organized by the local running club is quite famous around these here parts. The Steyning Stinger is renowned, along with Purbeck and Portland, as being a particularly challenging course and I signed up for it at the behest of my coach as part of my daisy chain of events. I signed…

Oh I have been here before, twice, or is it thrice? I have been running XNRG races for 5 years. They have been an ultra mainstay in my race calendar. And, if I ever have a gap that coincides with their races I will sign up. So much so that over those 5 years, including…

I love the Loch Ness marathon. I have run it 3 times and each time it did not disappoint. Sure, the second running was cold and wet, and less fun, a week after Manchester 2021. They became my slowest road marathons and it knocked me back a little, but only a little. You should rejoice…

It would be a different one this time. After Berlin being a solo weekend, and Loch Ness was a family affair with my brother, this would be a team weekend with International Running Coach Baz Tavener, PB girl Kaya, Jenni, Emma Longfellow and Laura Robbo descending on a town that can boast: Shed 7 as…

It was akin to a homecoming for my running. In 2013 I had planned to run the Berlin Marathon, one of the Abbotts Marathon Majors, as my first having signed up the last year before it went ballot. For many reasons I didn’t run it, reasons we don’t need to go into here. I was…

Am I ticking these off now? That is 8 marathons and ultras in 2022, 73 overall in less than 7 years leading up to an anniversary race at Berlin 2022. But yeah, I guess I am. A robot sent from the future to slowly plod ultras. And so to the Thames Path Challenge 2022 from…

After a DNF the last time out, my seventh DNF of all-time and second of the year, I needed a win. And if I could combine that win with closure on a race I have run in the past but not to marathon distance then all the better. Enter the Hell on the Humber, aka…

My youngest brother likes his toast cooked to a level my mother colourfully describes as warmed up bread. I like mine toasted but not burnt. 4 probably on the toaster. My other brother takes his tea strong. Very strong. Builders tea. So strong you can stand a spoon up in it. The opposite of the…

Things are definitely picking up. Into April, well, the end of April, and I am running my 4th race of the year and my 3rd Extreme Energy race of the year, the first day of the Devil’s Challenge. It is my 4th race in 3 months and will be 100 Marathon Club number 69 in…

When I ran the 2016 Manchester Marathon, wrist deep in UKRUNCHAT, living my best online running life, I PBd. Even though I had trained for Berlin with a coach, a plan and nutrition, I somehow beat that time in my second marathon by 4 minutes without any of those things, and it is still my…

2022 is fast become a year of deja-vu. The race calendar, always subject of great speculation, before becoming an organic beast shifting it’s shape and size based on COVID and cancellations, has been concreted in and it is looking decidedly familiar. In February, last time out, it was a rerunning of the Pilgrim Challenge. April…