Tales of Trails, Mountains and Rocky Roads

Wednesday was one of those days where I’d been feeling really grumpy, so much so that I wasn’t really in the mood for the annual Shugborough Relays. The weather had been rubbish with heavy rain on and off all day, and then a few people had rubbed me up the wrong way and all I wanted was a nice relaxing evening in front of the TV cuddled up with my two dogs. The problem was that I had said I would organise the ladies teams for the relays, and having already got 8 ladies who had committed themselves to racing, I really didn’t want to let them down . I turned up at Shugborough still feeling a little moody, but the sun was now shining and with the usual hustle and bustle of races, I started to feel a little bit more cheerful. Unfortunately, some of our Trentham ladies were unable to run due to illness or injury, but we’d had a couple of last minute volunteers in the form of Kerry and Lynne which meant that we could still field two teams. Rose had turned up but was still quite poorly and h...

Thanks to my parents, I’ve always had a love for the great outdoors and have spent many happy days both as a youngster and now as an adult (!) roaming the hills and mountains at weekends, come rain or shine. To make things more challenging, my dad taught me to map read and we frequently chose routes that were unfamiliar to us just to practice our navigation skills, relying on these immensely on numerous occasions when on our backpacking expeditions in low cloud and mist up in the fells. Back then, I had also started running and I was often urged to take up orienteering to combine both my love of running and my obsession with maps and the outdoors. For one reason or another though, the closest I came to orienteering was when on work experience at Standon Bowers where I was teaching other young people about the sport as part of their geography field trips. As time progressed, I became more of a road runner, where racing meant following the person in front rather than thinking about whe...

Since doing my last race in mid May, I’ve had a pretty relaxing time with barely any running and plenty of dog walking, giving the body chance to rest and recuperate a bit and the brain chance to refocus. I’ve probably averaged about 30 miles a week or less – less than half my normal weekly mileage, and it’s been great! Last weekend it was the long bank holiday, and we headed over to Harlech in Wales for a weekend of camping. There’s nothing more relaxing than sleeping under canvas listening to the sea in the distance, the sheep on the hills and the nocturnal critters wandering around at night, and then waking up early morning to the great outdoors and breathing in the fresh air. Due to other commitments, Andy had been unable to come, so I shared a tent with just young Wilson for a bit of doggy bonding. We had some great walks across the fields, along the beach, through the forests, and in the mountains, and I even managed a couple of lovely little off-road runs which made a change f...