When I heard that my mum had been taken ill just before Christmas, I knew that I needed to head back to the UK to see the family. It had been 9 years since I was last in England - even longer since I had last seen my parents. We scheduled flights that would give us two weeks in the UK during February, and with the visit coinciding with my birthday, I wanted to do something to mark my birthday whilst I was over there, something challenging again, something exciting. Not having the same extreme cold and heavy snows that I have become accustomed to since living in Canada, the UK generally has relatively mild and wet winters which means that there are races held throughout the year. I scanned the race calendar to see if there was something I could perhaps compete in whilst there but nothing really came up - I was even tempted to rejoin my old running club - Trentham - just so that I could take part in the cross country races that would take place whilst I was visiting! It was then th...