As many of you will know I moved to Scotland some years ago to ‘live a life fantastic’. Don’t get me wrong life was already pretty good but I realised that living in London no longer gave me the satisfaction it once had and so as I looked down the glen at Alva I proposed a move to Scotland for my family. Alva Glen has been so intrinsically linked to my time in Scotland – it was where we decided that Scotland was for us, it was where we hike in the Ochils, it’s where we go canyoning and most recently it was where we finally got married. Alva is a special place and so a couple of Sundays ago I ..read more

Long time readers of this blog might recall that about two years ago as the GingaNinja finished the outstanding Durty Events Craggy Island Triathlon I got down on one knee in front of assembled triathletes and asked her to marry me. Some of you may recall this was as a result of something I’d said years earlier to her, ‘if you ever complete a 100 mile walk, an any distance ultra marathon or an any distance triathlon I will ask you to marry me – she did, so I did. At no point did I say we would take it any further… The GingaNinja and I at that point had been together more than a decade and it ..read more

It’s time to return to blogging, something, that until I started typing, I didn’t realise I had missed. There is a time and place for all things in our life journey and it seems I have arrived at the time and place of injury and illness – or as you might call it, middle age. I’ve now been sat unhappily at the injury and illness stop now for more than 18 months and don’t seem any further on than I was when I arrived here. To continue a bus related metaphor, when I alighted the Covid coach and paid for my ticket to chest infection central I thought, ‘alright, let’s get this done with and then b ..read more

I remember my bum hole was burning like it had been dipped into molten lava and my testicles were glowing like a 3 bar electric radiator, I was in so much pain that I could barely contain myself – I was stood on the trail with my shorts round my ankles and my fingers fully immersed in Vaseline in a desperate bid to save my race. It was pitch black dark and as I slathered on the greasy evil all over my nether regions I knew that my race was well and truly over. I was alone and broken. I remember my feet were smashed to bits, I had blisters in every possible place and I just wanted to curl up a ..read more

My review of 2021 was originally intended as a festive podcast (which you can listen to at the player above or by searching ‘ultraboyruns’ on your favourite podcast platform), though time and tide conspired against me to ensure that the episode dropped well late of the festive season but I’m not going to chastise myself too much for that. But given that the podcast circulation is still quite small I thought I would take the original script and put it into written form too and also because I’m writing this beyond the festive season and with the first race of 2022 under my belt I can be a litt ..read more

Let me explain the title of this post, basically 13 days before Christmas my much loved and well behaved daughter decided to go full bat poo on us and choose that very moment to ramp up the selfish and unkind behaviour and directed it, not at her parents but, at the two little girls who were visiting for a playdate. Now we’ve seen a little upswing in low self esteem and negative selfish behaviour over the last few months and we’ve been keen to educate it away – however, education alone has not proved successful and so I found myself writing to her as Santa to express his displeasure and to no ..read more

I hope I give good ultra running advice, hints and tips because I’ve shared them far and wide with runners from first timers to the grizzled and battered. I’ve had every kind of experience in ultra marathons, desert, trail, mountain, ice, long distance, short distance, DNS, DNF and even the odd finish and each one has given me an experience that I’ll mostly never forget. Here’s the thing though, I don’t learn from my experiences and I don’t listen to my own advice and when I declared at the registration of the Ranger Ultras White (South) Peaks 50km that I was likely to be the worst runner the ..read more

I’d hurt my hip flexors at some during the Pennine Bridleway 55 (race review here) but when I saw a social media posting from fellow runner Yvonne I felt the whirring of brain cells and realised that I was going to be at Lochore Meadows with Rona during the Lochore 10km. Boom. And so after the excitement of Craggy Island Triathlon and the marriage proposal (read about that here) I readied myself for a gentle bimble around a place I really enjoy running. What I hadn’t expected upon rolling up to the race on the Sunday morning was that I was really, really tired. When Yvonne approached me at th ..read more

So after I went canyoning with the GingaNinja last month (read about that here) I decided it would be fitting that we take the child to have a go and because we had such a tremendous time with Scotland’s Canyons there was only going to be one company that we were going to do it with. And so on a beautifully crisp September morning the day after ASK has completed her first triathlon (read about that here) we rolled up once more to Dollar Glen – all super keen to get some thick neoprene on and get cracking through some of Scotland’s beautiful landscape. We were greeted once more by the seemingl ..read more

For the last few months I’ve been really out of sorts with training, I’ve let all my races pass without attending and I’ve really struggled to get over the effect of having Covid19. However, during that time I have seen ASK really flourish in her triathlon training and this weekend saw the culmination of all the hard work come together as she took on the Peebles Triathlon (held in Galashiels) and did brilliantly. It’s been really rewarding watching her transition, pun intended, from the excellent runner that she already is into this multi-sport athlete. She did a lot of her swim training in c ..read more