I love to plan ahead and so I have entered a number of races for 2021. Some of them were postponed in 2020 and carried over. So here is my plan for the year January – Virtual Montane Spine Race I was keen to have something to get my teeth into in January to kickstart the year. I wanted to up my miles a bit and when I saw the Spine race was doing a virtual race I decided to enter and have a go. 268 miles is a lot further than I normally do in a month. Infact it will be the furthest I will have ever run in a month since I started running ultras in 2007. So I’m under no illusion that this is goin ..read more

When my final race of the year Tour de Helvellyn was cancelled I decided to spend a few weeks working on my speed rather than miles so my total for December was less than normal but I enjoyed the challenge and feel I did get some speed back in my legs. I ran a total of 117.51 miles in December. Here are my stats and breakdown In 2020 I ran a total of 1,799.17 miles and here is a breakdown of all my runs I fell 220.83 miles short of my goal of running 2020 miles in 2020 but I was happy with my effort overall considering the majority of my races were cancelled. I’ve been looking at my monthly ..read more

2020 has been a very unusual year for everyone with the Covid-19 pandemic affecting every aspect of our normal life. Sadly many people throughout the world have died or are suffering long term effects of the virus whether that is physical, mental or financially. So it seems trivial to be worried about not being able to run the ultra races I had planned for this year and we as a family are very grateful for our health and the fact that the virus hasn’t affected us as badly as many people throughout the country and the world. I’ve been able to keep running this year but I feel I have been tickin ..read more

Here is my latest blog post about kit on our Chia Charge website … Running is a cheap sport. ‘All you need is a pair of running shoes and you are away’ While that may be true every runner knows it is not the full story! As you move up in distance from 5k to 10k, to half marathon, marathon and into ultras the kit list and the amount you spend goes up and up. Here are just some of the kit that we runners will have bought … Shoes – several pairs! Road, trail, cushioned, zero drop, good grip etc Socks – basic, cushioned, two-layer, blister free, toe socks etc Shorts / tights – again a whole range ..read more

November ended up an easier month as I recovered from the Hardmoors 55 and with the cancellation of the South Downs Way 100. I decided to do some more speed work to see whether I can improve my basic speed as I feel that ever since the Dragon’s Back in 2019 I’ve been getting slower! In November I ran 102.62 miles. Here are the stats All my runs in NovemberSummary from StravaGraph of all runs per daySummary of all my runs in 2020 by typeAim for 2020 to run 2020 miles In 2020 I have run 1,681.66 miles which is at least 200 miles behind the goal of running 2020 miles. I have decided to let this g ..read more

Here is my latest blog post written for our Chia Charge website … One of the good things that has come out of lockdown and the cancellation of many of the races we love is the rise of virtual races. I’m sure I’m not alone in saying that I’d never thought about how a virtual race would work and what was the point. But now I’ve been involved in a couple over the summer I can see they are a great way to keep motivated during this year when our normal races have been cancelled or postponed. On our Run to the Hills Facebook page I asked members to share their thoughts about what motivated them to ..read more

During October I ran 144.97 as I continued my build up to and the actual Hardmoors 55 race. The initial plan was to also run the South Downs Way 100 but the race has now been cancelled due to the 4 week national lock down in England. I had actually decided not to travel anyway as we are in tier 3 in Scotland. So I’m glad I was able to run the Hardmoors 55 last Saturday so I’ve been able to at least run one ‘proper’ race this year. Here is a summary of my runs this month. So far in 2020 I have ran 1572.36 miles. The target for achieving 2020 miles would be 1647.94 miles so I’m 75.58 miles shor ..read more

Here is my latest blog post written for the Chia Charge website … Staying positive on a long race where you are on the go for 10, 20, 30 or more hours is important but often difficult. The problem is though that when you are feeling negative it does affect you physically so if you are able to stay positive then it has many benefits. There are many reasons for feeling negative something hurts there is a long way to go you’ve not eaten properly feeling sick you are cold falling behind your goal time do I really need to finish this race When you have thoughts like these and start thinking abou ..read more

This is the 7th time I have run this great race. My first was the very first time it was held in 2010 and it went from Helmsley to Guisborough and the weather was pretty similar!! This year a number of things were very different mostly due to the ongoing pandemic including The race being held in October rather than March A time-trial style start No mass briefing at the start listening to Jon go through to list of things that Shirley had told him to say! All the checkpoints outside No lovely hot food to welcome us at the finish The other big thing for me personally was that I was going to run ..read more

Thank you to all who have entered my latest competition. I’ve had 115 guesses. If you want to follow my progress and the race here is the link to the tracker. I’m number 198 http://live.opentracking.co.uk/20hm55/ They break down as follows Over 13hrs – 15 guesses Bronze sub 13hrs – 30 guesses Silver sub 12hrs 30mins – 37 guesses Gold sub 12hrs – 33 guesses Here is a list of all the entries ..read more