Tales of Trails, Mountains and Rocky Roads

As 2023 comes to a close, it's that time when we reflect on the past 12 months, and make some decisions as to how next year will be even better. For me personally, this year has been amazing, and it really is going to take some beating. As is typical with life, there have been some downs as well as ups, but the fact that we keep moving forwards is a positive in itself as we make the most of every situation.  From a running perspective, I have no complaints whatsoever. I ended up doing far more races that I had initially planned, but every single one has tested my resilience both mentally and physically in one way or another. Every race I have done this year has been an ultra, which now brings my tally over 100 since I first started ultra running some 15 or so years ago. Whilst I still consider myself a competitive runner, the competition these days is more against myself, and I am happy to say that I have surprised myself this year with the race results I have had. A seco...

  After completing The Divide 200, I had no plans to do anymore races, but then I ended up registering for Bar-ka-koo – a 55km trail race in November that I was already familiar with, having competed in the augural event back in 2020. That year, I finished as 1 st lady and 1 st overall in some extremely challenging wintery conditions. I was really looking forward to doing the race again, but a distinct lack of snow and mild winter temperatures caused my enthusiasm to wane, and when race day came, I wasn’t one of the runners that toed the start line.  Looking back, it was a good thing that I had already decided against doing the race; the day before, I had an urgent email from my brother over in the UK – my mum was seriously ill in hospital and had gone into respiratory failure, and the doctors and nurses were doing all they could to keep that breath in her lungs. It certainly wouldn’t have felt right gallivanting around woods and collecting tokens with things as they were, a...