Tales of Trails, Mountains and Rocky Roads

The Dam Good Run wasn't in my race plans for this year, but when my training schedule called for a 25k run at "best pace", the timing of it fitted perfectly and  so I found myself registering. There were a few distances on offer ranging from 2 miles up to 40km, but I was trying to stick to my schedule as closely as possible and so opted for the 26k. The race took us back to Lake Pleasant - the start venue of the Crown King Scramble - but this time, we would be running across the New Waddall Dam before joining the trails that meandered up and around the nearby hills, with amazing views of both the lake and the surrounding areas. Shores of Lake Pleasant and Start of the Dam Good Run  Although I was treating things as a training run, it wasn't meant to be easy and I was fully determined to work hard and push the pace when and if I could. I was a little concerned that my legs would still be suffering from the previous day's adventures, when a group...

The Crown King Scramble 50km was everything I expected it to be, and more. With great organisation, a tough course, outstanding scenery and lots of jolly good fun - and the fact that I finished soaking wet with sweat with salt stains across my face and all over my clothes, covered in dust and dirt from head to toe, absolutely starving and in desperate need of an ice cold beer, with tired, heavy legs but a big smile on my face - they were all sure signs of a damn good race. The race started at 6am alongside the shores of Lake Pleasant just as the sun was about to pop its head above the nearby mountains. The air was still quite cool although it was certain to warm up as the morning went along, with temperatures well in to the mid 80's expected later on in the day. The atmosphere at the start was a mixture of nervous excitement and anticipation as we all knew what lay ahead - 50km or 31 miles of uphill running, climbing from around 1500 ft at Lake Pleasant to nearly 6000 ft in...

March marked the beginning of my return to trail running and for the past couple of weeks, I've been building up for my next target race - the Crown King Scramble 50km - by getting out on the trails again and building some strength for the hills that I will encounter on the course.  Having been in Phoenix for over 6 months, I'm now far more familiar with the nearby trails and with Andy working and me not having access to a car, I find that I'm reconnecting with my trail legs at Apache Wash and the Phoenix Sonoran Desert Preserve, as well as Deem Hills. Some of these trails are pretty tough with extremely steep climbs, and whilst they may not last for much more than half a mile or so, they are very rocky which makes them far more technical and much more difficult to run up and down compared to many of the trails I've ran in the past. Deem Hills The other problem of course here in Phoenix is that these trails are desert trails - not that running in the desert...

Having made the decision to finally "retire" from competitive marathon running following my run in the Phoenix Marathon at the weekend, I have spent the past couple of days reflecting on my marathon career whilst I've sat at home with my feet up, recovering from the race whilst both Wilson and Brandy have been curled up next to me on the sofa.  Looking back, I still can't believe that I ran my first marathon 20 years ago as a very young and naive 23 year old "unattached" runner. I also can't believe that I had actually miscounted the number of pure marathons I had taken part in - I thought I had successfully stopped at the nice round number of 30 (discounting ultras), but in fact, I have completed 35 - how the hell did that happen? Had I known, I might have given up earlier - now I'm a little concerned that with my OCD for things being neat and tidy, I might get the urge to make it a nice, neat, round number - but let's not go down that road...