Mountain goats, Jelly beans, big smiles and Welsh rock – The Snowdon Skyline
You know you are doing an epic race when so much of it is spent climbing and scrambling past Welsh mountain goats! Following a 6 week break from anything resembling training I knew my fitness was lacking but the lure of such a technical and exciting route combined with some arm twisting pulled me in [...]
Even when her legs were off, she fought on her stumps.
"So how are you in the heat?" "I'm okay usually. I don't like it but I seem to cope alright." Nothing like jinxing yourself is there? At Endure 24 last year, I distinctly remember saying out loud the day before, 'I don't think it's going to be that hot', and it ended up being around [...]
Lessons learnt from My Little Friend.
Curled up in a ball, arms squeezing my stomach, stamping my feet on the floor like a toddler in a supermarket, trying not to shout: this was not the most promising start to my long run. Less than a mile in, and I was all set to turn around and go home. This might sound […]
Chasing rainbows.
After eight and a half hours of running, the end was closing in. Jayson ran next to me, spurring me on as the clock ticked. The shallow, steep steps onto the road slowed me to a tentative walk and I was off again, my other crew running alongside me as I grunted and grimaced my [...]
The Montane Spine race 2019 – A journey started
“If we must fail, let us do so reaching beyond our grasp for a dream that is worth all our striving. Then, even in our failing, even through our tears, we have won”. Wild trails to Far Horizons Mike Cudahy This past week, I seem to have been stumbling around in a bit of a [...]
Being intentional.
A couple of years ago, I remember watching an interview with Jim Walmsley where he said that he wanted to break the Western States record. This riled me. Here was this young, inexperienced – admittedly very quick – runner, saying something I saw as really arrogant. But, after watching him attempt it, fail, but gut […]
The question of why..
2018 seems to have been a bit of a funny year so far. If I dig into how I feel about it then I come up with the feeling that it has been pretty awesome in some respects but so damn tough and sad in others. Digging into any sort of quantifiable race results, it [...]
Just one day. Just one lap. Just one step. Just keep moving.
Running ultras makes you do stupid things. One of these things is entering more ultras but that’s not what I mean. I mean things like deleting the biggest race of your year from your watch because your brain doesn’t work. Yes, I discarded Endure 24 from my Garmin because Endure 24 made me stupid for […]
Racing to train.
You might not believe me, but I don’t see myself as a good racer. Like a lot of people, I started doing this because I enjoyed it, not because I thought I could win stuff. I’m not motivated by winning (although it is really nice!) and I often don’t enjoy the pressure that racing can […]
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