Tales of Trails, Mountains and Rocky Roads

For some of us, our pets make up a huge part of our lives and I certainly know a fair few people that would go to the ends of the earth for their furry babies. I've personally been blessed over the years and have had the greatest pleasure of having dogs in my life from the day I was born, and I'm sure that those that know me well realise how much our old boys Sam and Leo meant to me, and now Wilson and Brandy. But it isn't just dogs that have stolen my heart in recent years - we had 3 cats at one point, all with their own unique personalities, and we still have Khayman who keeps us awake at night either meowing for attention or purring very loudly whilst sleeping contentedly on our pillow. We've also had 2 rabbits, both of which came into our lives by pure accident. Before Bunny and Spud, rabbits were never our pet of choice. Sure you can cuddle them and they are soft and fluffy, but you can't take them running or walking with you and the common perception ...

The Frozen Ass 50km is held annually on Family Day, and since my arrival in Calgary 3 years ago, I have competed in the race every year. Being an out and back course, it's not exactly the most inspiring of routes, and with the added bonus of being held in February when the weather can be bitterly cold and the pavements snowy and icy, strangely enough the event isn't on everybody's bucket list of "must do"races. Yet it is a great, low key race that is extremely well organised with fantastic volunteers, and having won the ladies race for the past couple of years, it has become a part of my life as a runner. I wasn't intending to run it this year - getting the long runs in during the winter months in Calgary can frequently be challenging to say the least and running indoors on the treadmill for 2-3 hours can literally drive you bonkers - besides, I had been purely focused on running the London Marathon as my first major event this year. My training hadn'...

I've been in the running business long enough to know that it's full of ups and downs - some days we run and everything just clicks into place, whilst other times we have a bad race or a string of bad training sessions and our confidence starts to hit rock bottom. Thankfully, the runners I've met over the years are generally an optimistic bunch of folks and they don't tend to dwell too much on the "rather forget" days. About 5 years ago, I was hit by my first major running injury - the dreaded plantar fasciitis. I'd had some fantastic races prior to the injury, but then I did a 78km mountain race in Switzerland which I wasn't prepared for, and the rocky descents that I had to contend with completely battered my feet which led to the injury woes. Like most runners, I kept running despite the pain but with every race, my performances were getting even worse. I started to lose my confidence and avoided racing for a while, but my passion for the sport...