Tales of Trails, Mountains and Rocky Roads

What a difference a couple of weeks can make. At the end of September, I had what can only be described as a very poor run at the Commonwealth Trail Champs and in hindsight, it is easy for me personally to see why it happened. I certainly won’t bore anybody with the details, but putting it simply, it was the wrong race at the wrong time. A day or so after the race, we had the news that we had been waiting for for the past 10 years or so – Andy had been offered a job over in Calgary, and our lifetime dream of escaping from the UK was about to come true. Thoughts of a fresh start in a new country, with the fresh air and mountain trails just an hour or so drive from our new home, released a new positivity in me with regards to my running. Two weeks after the trail race, and it was the first race in the North Staffs Cross County League. Despite not having trained specifically for short races and having a distinct lack of speed in the legs, I was now looking forward to the race, and I kne...

It’s been a week since I did the Commonwealth Ultra Trail Championships, and now that it’s been and gone, it feels like it was a bit of an anti-climax. I was expecting far more from the event yet I can’t really put my finger on why I feel a bit indifferent about things. I’d been focused on the Commonwealths since May time, having decided to concentrate on the trails rather than the 100km on the road, and whilst training had been going well, I’ve had a lot on my mind for the past month or so, and I genuinely feel that this had a huge impact on my performance. Add to that a Mediterranean Cruise (where I did put on a little bit of weight – the deserts were divine!), and the fact that I was so busy trying to reassure others about how well they would run, when I stood on the start line last Sunday, I really hadn’t had the opportunity to think about how I would tackle the race! If you delete my race result, the weekend really was a great success, and I was proud to be a part of it. Watchin...