This is the long and cautionary tale of why it’s important to focus not just on the running side of running but resting and strengthening both your body and mind. I felt like I was running on a pure unending high after Marathon des Sables. I had raced the London Marathon and set a huge … Continue reading The Injury Downfall: Part One
So by now I will hopefully be about start day two of the Marathon des Sables and so I thought I would ask for you support for the next few painful days. There is no real phone signal when I’m out there so I won’t be able to get emails, read the comments or anything … Continue reading Words of Support
I have scheduled this post to go live on the day I start the Marathon des Sables. Right now as you sip that coffee or eat that slice of cake I have 9ishkg on my back, sand beneath my feet (and probably already in unholy places) and sweat pouring from every inch of me. I … Continue reading The Start Line
Before this race even started, I contemplated quitting. Pulling back the curtains the morning before the race revealed a hurdle I had not accounted for, let alone trained for: a heavy deluge of snow. The snow lay thickly upon the ground, silently mocking my precarious mental strength. The race ahead was the biggest running challenge … Continue reading My First DNF
On Sunday I set a new marathon personal best and, if I’m honest, it was a complete accident. The day before the race I confessed to my friend that I didn’t even really want to run this marathon, my running mojo had been kicked into the long bushes as the fear of Marathon des Sables … Continue reading Marathon Tactics – Divide and Conquer
New York is the backdrop to countless cliché movies, Hollywood’s dreams are woven through it’s every avenue and street. It is a place that you can’t help but feel hopeful in. Those cinematic endings where the music swells and everyone gets their happily ever after overrides your self-held sensibilities. It is intoxicatingly inspiring. On December … Continue reading New York State of Mind – Part One
For anyone who has ever dreamed of getting that coveted six-star marathon majors medal, this is the product review for you. Not many of the runners I have spoken to knew that apart from qualifying, ballot or charity places there is another way of securing one of those elusive spots in marathons such as New … Continue reading 2:09 – A Review
There are two moments that I say my running started; the first time I dragged my arse off the sofa and went out for a run and the Oxford Half in 2015. While it is hard to imagine a time when I wasn't running and blogging, I never actually wrote about my first half marathon as … Continue reading Running in my own Footprints
I said in a blog post last year that marathons come down to just a few moments, sometimes they can just come down to 93 collected seconds. Moscow Marathon had seemed like a far off venture for so long that it some how managed to sneak up on me rather unprepared. After Lakeland 50, my … Continue reading One Minute and Thirty Three Seconds
This taxi is going way over the speed limit down the motorway and I’m getting changed in the back seat, just your standard race morning. I don’t tend to write up every race nowadays as I know you’d probably get a bit bored of the same old story but the Richmond Runfest 10K was no ordinary … Continue reading Not a Regular Raceday
