Race Review – Steyning Stinger

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…

Race Review – Pilgrim Challenge (Day 2) 2023

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…

Race Review : Loch Ness Marathon 2022

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…

Race Review : Yorkshire Marathon 2022

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…

Race Review – Berlin Marathon 2022

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…

Race Review – Thames Path Challenge

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…

Race Review – Hell on the Humber (HOTH)

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…

Race Review – Race to the Tower 2022

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…

Race Review – The Devil’s Challenge (Day One)

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…

Race Review – Manchester Marathon 2022

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…

Race Review – Amersham Ultra (second running)

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…

Race Review – Pilgrim Challenge Day One (2022)

I have been unwell. Not that that is the excuse for taking from the 23rd of October to the 5th February to run the next race. After Beachy Head and finishing 2021 on 14 marathons and above toward the 100 Marathon Club (again!) I took stock, revaluated my cumulative fatigue and decided to build my…