When a plan comes together… The Northern Traverse is a roughly 300 km (185 miles) route across the North of England from St Bees on the west coast to Robin Hood’s Bay on the east coast, organised by Ourea Events. The route can broadly be broken into four sections, the Read more…
Over the last 12 months I have spent a lot of time on the Pennine Way, either recceing the route or ‘racing’. I ran the Spine Challenger South in June and the Spine Challenger North (minus the last 7 miles 😥) in January. I basically covered the whole of the Read more…
What came before I started running in 2007 but did not run my first marathon until 2015. My journey into ultra running started cautiously with a 28 mile local race in September 2021. I built up the distances over the next 12 months and a year later I ran the Read more…
A round up of the final month of 2024 where I had three events on three stormy days with yellow weather warnings: the Punk Panther Christmas Cracker in a named storm (Darragh) on the 7th, a ‘Run like a Haggis’ navigation course on a ‘standard windy day’ on the 15th, Read more…
Marathon Eryri – 26 Oct 2024 I travelled to Llanberis for my sixth time running Marathon Eryri (the English version of the name, ‘Snowdonia Marathon’ was dropped in 2023). It was the 40th staging of this iconic race and the Welsh weather obligingly showed its best face, giving us dry Read more…
SwissPeaks Trail organise races with a range of distances, from a half-marathon all the way up to an unbelievable 660k. Their main race week is always the week after UTMB, and whilst the races start in different places depending on the distance, they all finish in Le Bouveret on the Read more…
Having done quite a number of ultra races since I got into ‘the long stuff’ three years ago, the idea of trying a backyard ultra took hold a while ago. For those unfamiliar with the concept: the backyard ultra is a form of ultra marathon race where competitors must consecutively Read more…
Non-stop along the Pennine Way from Edale to Hardraw About the race: The Montane Summer Spine Challenger South is a non-stop, 108 mile race with around 15,500 ft of ascent, along the Pennine Way from Edale to Hardraw (just north of Hawes). The non-stop nature means that the clock does Read more…
Running to the North Sea with my Northern Traverse pebble Early in the morning on Monday April 8 my Northern Traverse journey came to an end in Marske, about 4 miles west of Richmond. My back had totally given up, I had the ultra runners’ lean and I slowly and Read more…
Running through storm Kathleen, and some unfinished business…. This post will not end with the happy sound of my feet going over a finish line, or pictures of a medal. My first major ultra event of 2024, the Silva Northern Traverse, a non-stop race of 180 miles (in reality around Read more…