Twelve months have come and gone and here I am looking back and hoping to see an improvement, some sort of progress in at least one aspect of my running from previous years. I do this every year, despite the haters hatin’, even though it tends to depress me it also inspires me to…

Am cataloging my parkrun adventure as I try (slowly) to work my way up to 50, 100 and beyond parkruns. I am enjoying the tourism aspects mostly, so will be reviewing the runs as I do them and republishing as I do. D ALEXANDRA PALACE (LONDON) BROCKWELL (LONDON) BUSHY (THE ORIGINAL – HAMPTON WICK) CLAPHAM…

2018 My God, where did this year go? It only seemed like last week that I turned up at the Race Organiser’s Olympic Park 10K sporting my new 12 Marathons in 12 Months top, and ran a comfy race with Jenni Morris that then prompted me to a successful PB attempt a week later. And…

Things have been a bit shit of late. You may or may not recall that I finished day 2 of the Race to the Tower double marathon weekend strapped up and limping. Physio and osteo sessions followed and I didn’t run a step for what would turn out to be 5 weeks. Shocking really, considering…

It has been a pretty good year so far. My flumpometer rating is pretty high with 4 marathons (Vienna, Liverpool, Gothic and Transgrancanaria) and 2 ultras (St Wales and Amersham) ticked off in the space of 3 months. Not to mention the halves, tens and a 20 miler too. But this year is all about…

What do you want from your running? Well that is a tricky question, Darren, thanks for starting this at the bottom of a sheer incline. For me, I want to finish races well, healthy, not destroyed and to do so I can either train and be in great shape, or put in a little less…

Following on from the progress, if that is the correct term, made in 2016 (100K ultra and 6 marathons) I wanted 2017 to be an even bigger year. The big race, the A race that would be my target was the Berlin Wall 100 Miler, a curious and relatively unknown event but one that has…

Do you watch Top Gear? I do. Well, I did. The Clarkson, Hamster and May Top Gear on the BBC before Jezza got all punchy and had to go. It is a fun show. I do have a less tenuous link to the show, in that, when I was in Barbados I saw Quentin Wilson’s…

I know a thing or two about activity tracking technology. For the last year I have been completing my newest master’s thesis on the impact it has on our running community. I am also acutely aware of my own personal need. My tracking need has evolved over time, and so has my activity tracking technology….

It needs to be a blue skies on Mars moment when I start the Ultraks Ultra Marathon in Zermatt Switzerland on the 26th August. It will be the first test of my knee since retiring from The Comrades before half way.  I have a medical team helping me, a great couple of Osteos and a…

It is the day before… well, you know. It is the day of the packet pickup and the Comrades EXPO. It started at 9am with the tour operator driver picking up the runners at the hotels in Umhlanga, and driving them the short (15-20 min) drive to the EXPO in Durban proper.  Not really the…

And so we have it. This is the rub. 5 years of running has brought me to here; the start pen for Wave G at the famous Comrades Marathon. Ok, stop there, rewind a bit. Much like the Two Oceans Marathon in Cape Town in the Spring is NOT a marathon because it is 54K,…