Tales of Trails, Mountains and Rocky Roads

What can I say about 2025, except that it's passed by so quickly, and it doesn't seem like two minutes since we were last celebrating Christmas and New year! All in all, it's been a good year and I feel like I've achieved lots, although there are a few things that I wish we could have done more of. From a running perspective, I've had a good year - a couple of podium finishes both overall and in my age group, although in all fairness, I've tried to enjoy racing this year rather than putting pressure on myself and trying to race flat out, or to meet the expectations of others. A win at the Frozen Ass 50k, second place at Hill of a Race and Blackfoot Ultra 50k, then another win at Survivorfest 24-hour track race made me realise that I've still got it when my training goes well and my mind's in the right place, but then I'm not too bothered about the wins so much these days. I then did a couple of trail mountain ultras - Sinister 7 50k and Canadian Deat...

Back in the days of the COVID pandemic, a race popped up on my radar that was just an hour's drive from home. It was a 55km trail race in November, and it would mimic some of the traits that are more commonly associated with The Barkley Marathon. This new race was Bar-ka-koo -  5 laps of 11km, run in alternate directions, where one had to collect and carry a log on every lap as proof you'd been to each of the checkpoints. With a 10-hour cut off, it was either a very generous time limit even with the snow, or it was going to be one heck of a tough course. It turned out to be the latter, and with just 4 solo finishers that year and no teams finishing, it began to gain a reputation for being a darn hard race. I was one of the finishers that year in 9 hours and 4 minutes - whether it was the deep snow and bitter cold weather that year that made it a hard slog, or whether it was the brutal course that had my body aching for a week afterwards I don't know, but I knew one day I...

I've done so many races in my time and sometimes, I feel terribly selfish taking up other people's time just so that I can run, and they never ask for anything in return. The race organisers - especially those that aren't run for profit - spending so much of their own time making sure everything goes like clockwork on the day, and then of course the volunteers, some of which stand around for hours on end to help out us runners. That's why in recent years, I have made a conscious effort to give something back to the sport I love, by volunteering and supporting other runners to successfully complete their races too. Over the past couple of months though, I've found another way to help and support other runners, and especially my friends, and that's through pacing. I've never really paced anybody at a race before. When I lived in Arizona and competed in ultras in the US, it seemed like pacers were allowed at any race of 100km or longer. I'm thankful to my o...

 I don't tend to do many road races these days, but when I saw that my old running club was hosting the Werrington 10k on the same weekend as our arrival in the UK prior to the World Championships, I ended up registering for the race. At the start of the year, I set myself 10 goals for the year, one of which was to run a sub 45 minutes 10k. My PR for 10k was set many years ago and stands at 37.06 so there was no point in aiming for a PR - I'm unable to run anywhere near that kind of pace these days - and in all honesty, even 45 minutes is a push given that I train for much longer races these days. But having a goal keeps me motivated and so going into Werrington, I thought it would be a good opportunity to give it another try (I'd ran the St Albert 10k and the Hypothermic 10k earlier in the year, and had ran around 46 minutes for both). One thing to note is that Staffordshire is not flat, and that the roads around Werrington are definitely undulating if not hilly. Going sub...

Way back in April 2006, I ran the London Marathon as a member of a team. It was the English National Marathon Championships, I was running for Newcastle (Staffs) AC, and our ladies team came away with national team gold that day. It was an incredible result for the team, and to top things off even further, I personally smashed my marathon PR by another 7 minutes, finishing in 2 hours 47 minutes which gave me 14th place in the ladies event. The marathon was always my strongest distance and I rarely lacked the confidence that I could hit my goal - I've now stood on the start line of over 60 marathons over the years, and even today, I could still probably predict my finishing time over the distance. A few weeks after running my marathon PR, I received a letter from Norman Wilson, the Team GB Ultra Distance Coach and Manager, asking if I'd be interested in competing in the Boddington 50k in the August. This race would provide the opportunity to qualify to represent England at the W...

Although I had completed the Canadian Death Race twice before, both times had seen me lose a considerable amount of time on leg 4 of the race, affectionately known as the "Hamell Assault". It was also on this leg that I DNF'd one year - for some reason, Mount Hamell is always a struggle for me, and I end up spending most of my time throwing up shortly after the climbing starts, and then being unable to eat or drink anything for hours afterwards, which results in me not having the race that I was hoping for. When originally registering for CDR this year, my goal was to get under 20 hours. I'd been doing far more hill work in my training, albeit on the treadmill, and I was feeling much stronger than in previous years, so much so that I truly believed I could go sub 20. However, my race plan changed following the announcement that I had been selected to represent Canada at the World 24-hour Championships in October - not surprisingly, the 24-hour became a greater priorit...