After watching the lads at the Bunbury marathon last weekend I have decided to have another go at running sub 3. This time at the Perth Marathon (for the 13th time) in October. I have a PB time of 2:41:58 at Perth albeit that was over ten years ago. My goal will be the event age group record for 55-60 which is 2:59 and change. So 2:58 is the target. Training wise I will adjust my plan from ultra training to marathon training after the Karratha BYU in June, this will give me three months which should be enough ?   Perth 2013, my PB year 2:41:58. It’s been nearly five years since my last su ..read more

Herdy’s Frontyard Ultra 2024, another beast of an event coming probably a tad too soon after the Delirious West 200 miler a few weeks prior.  ( https://deliriouswest200miler.com.au/ )  This was to be my fourth Herdy’s finishing assist to the great Phil Gore in 2021 with 47 yards (laps/hours) and then a 34 yard effort in 2022 and 28 yards in 2023.   This was my tenth backyard ultra and I had harboured thoughts of a possible retirement from this format of racing.  For readers who don’t know what a backyard ultra is check out this website https://backyardultra.com Th ..read more

Finally I can see the end of this race report albeit in my defence it was a long race. Post #4 had me at Cosy Corner aid station at sunrise on Saturday morning, day four on this epic adventure. I grabbed a bacon and egg roll, the staple diet of 200 mile runners it seems, a coffee and  changed my clothes and Mark pushed me out of the aid station and onto the beach toward Mutton Beach carpark. This was only a six kilomtere hop on compacted sand with a nice morning breeze to keep the temperature reasonable. Post Cosy Corner you only have Mutton Beach and Sandpatch to go before the finish, th ..read more

Post #3 left us eating a steak supper at Peaceful Bay caravan park and preparing for the next hop to Boat Harbour, a 18km leg. First thing was a jet ski ride over the inlet. Check out the video, pretty cool. The tide was rushing in when me and Simon got to the inlet and there would have been no way we’d make it across without help.  Funnily enough later in the event ,when the tide was out, you could have walked across easily, and they crew were pulling runners across on SUP’s. One of the legends providing Jet Ski transport across the inlet. image Astrid Volzke We left the Peaceful Bay&nb ..read more

Sunrise on day two, leaving Mount Clare heading towards Walpole. At the end of Delirious West post #2 I had just arrived at Mount Clare at some ungodly hour and a lot later than first envisaged.  I remember it was still dark so I’d say around three in the morning or just later. The Mandalay to Mount Clare section is , in my view, the hardest part of the whole event as you are attempting on very tired legs and the terrain and elevation just beat the crap out of you. I stumbled into my swag and was asleep before my head hit the pillow. Sleeping in a swag is so cool albeit I must admit I’ve ..read more

We hit the first aid station as the lead group or close, I think Phil Fowler and the ‘Malaysian Missile‘ Andrew Farmers were ahead of us at this point.  The first aid station is a good distance, about 25km , and no crew are allowed so I would not get to see Mark until Chesapeake East around the marathon mark.  We didn’t stay long, a couple of biscuits, fill the water bottles and bladder, cup of sweet tea and we were away. Lots of smiles , it was early in the day.   First aid station and it’s all smiles, Chesapeake West, 26km in , just over 310km to go. Video coming into aid stat ..read more

One of my favourite places to be in the world.. the start of the Delirious West 200 miler. So off we go again, Delirious West 2024.   Absolutely stoked to be back running this beast of a 200 miler supported by the best crew in WA, maybe Australia, Mark Lommers.. As is tradition Mark drove the trusty Audi Q5 and early Monday afternoon off we drove , Pemberton here we come. This was Mark’s third time supporting me and he now knows what I need before I do. He is calm under pressure, never flustered and a pleasure to be around, the shining light when you are in a very dark place. He also ..read more

It’s pretty flat bar a few speed bumps. After last weekends 24 park run in 24 hours  ( post here :- https://www.runbkrun.com/2024/01/15/running-in-a-furnace-for-a-great-cause-24-park-runs-in-24-hours/ ) what better way to prepare for the Delirious West 200 miler in a few weeks ( https://deliriouswest200miler.com.au/  ) then another ultra, this time on tired legs.  I have ran the Australia Day Ultra three times in the past , the 50km option the first time (2016) and then two 100km events. (2017-18) The first time I ran the 100km Rob Donkersloot produced a video on the event ..read more

On Saturday I ran the 24 Park Runs in 24 hours in Perth for the On My Feet charity, helping homelessness. ( https://www.onmyfeet.org.au/ ) The concept is simple, run a park run, drive to the next one, run that park run and repeat 24 times over the course of the 24 hour period. This gives you around thirty minutes for each park run with a small break for lunch, dinner and an early breakfast. Sounds easy right ? Wrong as Perth decided to present us with the hottest day of the summer so far with temperatures hitting 42c ( over 107F) and staying around the 40c for most of the early afternoon ..read more

Ramping it up.. Over the Christmas break and into 2024 I have been putting in some serious trail time and double days and hitting some big weekly distances. Infact last week was my biggest weekly total (excluding races) since week 38 2016.  I know this because I have been tracking my running totals using an excel spreadsheet since 2009.   I’m up to 65,662km’s now and  4,409 separate runs; of course with Strava I have a detailed record from about 2013 onwards but still manually log every run in my good old trusty spreadsheet. Looking at the table you can see my big years were 20 ..read more