Setting the bar for 2013

Posted on January 13, 2013 by admin

2012 was a sort of mediocre year as far as running goes for me. I started and ended the year with flu which interrupted my training a bit, I only managed to run a couple of fell races all year, and I tried a new brand of trainers which played havoc with my calfs almost causing me to pull out of the Wall Ultra in June.

It was all bad though, I managed to put in a reasonable at the Lakeland 50, (running around with Ian Young and David Best), I was happy with a sub 15 hour run for the 70 Mile ‘Wall’ (Finishing outside my office a couple of hours before my 42nd birthday) and I managed to get around the 62 mile Hardmoors 60.

With another go at the Lakeland 100 planned for July, I’m hoping that I’ll find a little more motivation in 2013. There are 28 weeks between now and the Lakeland, and looking back at my training plan from 2011 (when I last tried the Lakeland 100) I had just come back from the Himalayas and was running 44 miles a week at this stage in my training. Over the past 3 months  i’ve been averaging a mere 1 run a month, although I managed to up that to 18 miles this week I seriously need to up my game and start playing catch up fast.

…did I mention I am around a stone or 1 jean size over my idea running weight.

Posted in planning, training, ultra | 2 Comments

Ultra…the new marathon

Posted on November 5, 2012 by admin
With the ever increasing popularity of running, the number of people tackling both half and full marathons is on the rise. So it should come as no surprise that more and more of us are pushing the our boundaries beyond the marathon.

There is currently only one word to describe runs which are longer than 26.2 miles and that word is ‘Ultra’.

At first you may think that there is little different between an ultra and any other run other than the distance, but in truth ultras come in all different shapes and sizes, and are as different to each other as a 5k is to a marathon.

While some ultras like the Cotswold 100 are entirely ran on the road, most are ran largely ran over trails. Races like the Montane Lakeland 100 or Hardmoors 60 have personalities of their own, taken from the dramatic landscapes through which they pass and the characters the people that live there.

As with any new challenge, there are many new disciplines to master. Some of the longer races cover a hundred miles or more, which necessitate having to run through the night not once but twice, and if you think night navigation can be tough, try it after 36 hours without sleep.

Possibly the most important factor to consider is nutrition. Nutrition is can be make or break for an Ultra runner. Getting the right balance of salts, sugars, carbs, proteins and taking on just the right amount of water is crucial. Unlike a marathon with aid stations every few miles, in an ultra there can be a marathon between aid stations.

Ultra don’t just test you physically though, they test you mentally as well. The will power required to keep on pushing yourself mile after mile is immense, which is one of the many reasons that the drop out race for this kind of race is so high. Its not unusual for over fifty percent of those starting a race to drop out before the end.

Just how far you push your own boundaries is up to you, put more and more people and discovering that those boundaries are far far further than they ever could have imagined.

[Note - Some of the credit for this post goes to Phill Turton, Tony Allen and Adnan Khan, as this post sort of came out of a conversation had while running around Kielder Water on friday evening. In fact this post start off as an introduction to a piece on head tourch running

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Hardmoors 60 – harder than expected!

Posted on October 7, 2012 by admin

“The Hardmoors 60 route follows the Cleveland Way from Guisborough to Filey passing through coastal resorts and fishing villages such as Saltburn, Staithes, Robin Hoods Bay, Ravenscar, Scarborough and Filey while following cliff tops for the main duration of the race.”  That’s how the Hardmoors 60 is described on their website, sounds idilic doesn’t it?

What better way to spend a Saturday in September. Fresh from training in the Italian Lakes and having put in pretty good runs already at the Wall and the Lakeland 50, I’d never felt more prepared for an Ultra.

My bag had been packed and sitting ready to go next to the front door for a week by the time race day came around. I’d have to be up at 1am to get dressed and have a bit of breakfast before taking the 3 hour drive down to filey in time to catch the bus the 60 miles back to the start in Guisborough for registration at 7am.

Driving down to Filey you pass through Guisborough, Whitby and Scarborough, I couldn’t help but wonder at the enormity of what I was about to do. The 60 mile drive had taken well over an hour in the car, and soon i’d be running it.

We had permission to park at Filey School over the weekend, where the race would finish later that night, but when I pulled into the car park at 4.45am there were only a dozen or so cars dotted around the outside of the car park. I got out to stretch my leg, some of the other runners were trying to catch a last few moments sleep in their cars while others seemed to be changing into their race kit or sorting their packs.

During the next half hour, still in the dark before dawn more and more cars arrived and those runners that had been sleeping when I arrived started to stir. Judging by their gear, these guys looked like pretty serious runners, I’d be surprised if any of them hadn’t ran a bunch of Ultras already. This hunch has confirmed on the bus to Guisborough as the conversation inevitably turned to talk of previous races, current form and todays route.

The race starter from the Sea Cadets in Guisborough, where we had our kit checked and left our drop bags. This was the first race I’d ran where food would not be provided at the aid stations. I’d be responsible for making my own nutritional choices. I thought back to the Lakeland 50 and the wall, trying to remember what i’d eaten, ensuring I packed enough sugars, salts and electrolytes. It turn out the aid stations were very well provisioned anyway and I really didn’t need to take a fraction of what I took, but i’d rather have too much than too little. In the end the bigger problem was that on the day I just didn’t have an appetite and struggled to eat at all during the race.

Hardmoors 60 Drop bags

The race got off to a slightly delayed start (140 starters and only 2 toilets having lead to a bit of a queuing problem), but they added 35 minutes to each of the cut offs and it gave me a chance to chat to a few people that i’d spoken to on facebook but never actually met.  At this point I was still hoping to get around in 12 hours and even with the 1/2 hour delay would just about get around in day light.


The first 10 miles of the route take you up through Guisborough Woods up to HighCliff Nab then back on yourself down the Cleveland Way to Saltburn. While it was wet though the woods and part of the route took us through a housing estate, I really enjoyed this section of the trail with its gradual climbs and fleeting views out over the woods to the sea.

My strategy to use bright orange sea to summit sacks for drop bags worked well. I barely stopped at Saltburn, grabbing the drop bag and clipping it to the front of my pack I was off along the coastal path that would take me the remaining 50 miles to Filey.

We couldn’t have asked for a better a day to be running. There were clear blue skies with a light breeze at our backs, and the trails were good. So I really had no excuses for not putting in a fantastic performance. But I guess that some days I run well and other days I don’t and unfortunately today was just was one of those days were i was going to struggle. My calfs were tight from the start, I seemed to have no energy and I was struggling to eat, today was going to be a long long day. Slowing to a sustainable pace, this race was going to be ran in my head more than on the trail, it was going to take a lot of will power to keep going to the finish but I’d ran longer races and I would make it one way or another.

Running a coastal trail sounded idealistic. I mean love the beach. So what could be better than stunning sea views and dramatic coast cliffs. After several hours of running along those cliff tops the novelty began to wear off though, and the coastal route began to play tricks with my head. You rarely got a clear view of where you were headed, seeing only the next headland and when your destination did come into sight there were inevitably several hidden sets of stairs to go up and down before you got there.

That being said, the route 60 mile route was undeniably beautiful.  There were some real high points, a winding path along a stream bed coming off the beach at Runswich, some of the quaintest little fishing villages, Whitby Abbey, Scarborough sea front, and the sight of the full moon reflecting over the sea was stunning.

[side note: while you would be forgiven for thinking that a 60 mile runs is possibly not the most romantic of  occasions the couple in the photo above managed to celebrate every sytle fence or gate they crossed with a kiss and he even raced up the 199 stairs to Whitby Abbey to be waiting with an ice cream for her at the top!]

As with previous ultras I found myself chatting to fellow runs on many sections of theroute and was very thankful for the company of James Penson for much of the secondhalf, without who’s company it would have seemed a much longer day.

The finish was a very welcome sight with only 15 minutes to go before the 16 hour cut off and I was very happy to settle for joint 77th place in a time of 15 hours and 46 minutes.

All in all, I had a great day. It just wasn’t my race on the day, but I’m a believer that what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger and I obviously wasn’t the only one to find harmoors lived up to its name with 48 of the 140 starters not making it to the finish.

As ever many thanks to the organisers, marshalls, supporters and runners.
You may also like to see Tim’s , Phill’s and Alistair reports.

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Barefoot in the park

Posted on August 16, 2012 by admin

About a month a go Dr. Michael Wilkinson, senior lecturer in sport and exercise sciences at Northumbria uni ran a workshop on Barefoot running at the university. Barefoot running has seen a huge rise in popularity recently with the success of books like ‘Born to Run’ so not surprisingly the workshop filled up incredibly quickly, so quickly in fact I didn’t manage to secure a place.

Following on from the workshop, Michael set up a facebook group and has an open invitation to join him and other barefoot runners running around the town moor on Thursday evening’s. The group has been attracting 4 or 5 runners a week, so I thought it was about time I went along to see what it was all about.

barefoot runners
Regular readers of this blog will know I’ve done a bit of running in Vibram Five Fingers which are a minimalist shoe and have  ran truly barefoot on the roads a couple of times, but I’ve never ran with other barefoot runners.

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect when I got there, or what sort of reaction the group would get from other runners. When you run in minimalist shoes you kind of expect to get strange looks, when you run completely barefoot you can expect even stranger looks, but what sort of reaction would we get when there were a group of us all with no shoes? To be honest most people just seemed to ignore the lack of footware. a couple of people looked away and one guy on a bike warned us to watch out for the cow dung on the track.

Most the the townmoor has good tracks, but there are a couple of sections that are a bit rougher and a couple that are just gravel which is one of the hardest surfaces to run on barefoot. Running on the grass and some of the smooth paths through the park was pretty much like any other social or cub run, chatting about previous runs or future plans, as the track became more broken and running became more difficult the experience started to change a strange sort of machismo began to kick in, I found myself running over terrain much tougher than that I would normally have dared run on had I been onmy own. It was as if the whole group collectively just decided to ignore any signs pain from the roughness of the broken track.

I noticed more than before that the feeling of running on smooth surfaces like soft grass or finely finished tarmac paths was quite cool and soothing where as running on sharp spikey broken tarmac tracks felt like tiny little intense pin pricks of heat. 
Not yet being used to running on these kind of surfaces I found that by stride and style changed switching from one surface to another where as I noticed Sumanth who’s obviously been doing this for longer and who’s feet are obviously much tougher than mine barely batted an eyelid as we switched from surface to surface. 

We ran a similar loop to Park run in glorious sunshine, something just short of 5k, then after posing for a quick group photo, I put my Five Fingers back on and decided that as it was such a lovely night I may as just keep on going and jog home instead of taking the train as planned. This had the added bonus of taking my miles logged on Nike+ to just over 3000, although as I had brought any water not having planned to run home, I did have to make a quick detour to Asda on the way back to collect a few essentials like, water, haribo and coke (which i had to shake up to get it to go flat). The haribo were 3 for a quid, and if I thought the looks I got running in minimalist shoes were bad, the looks I got standing outside of Asda stuffing 3 bags of haribo and a bottles of coke down my throat before continuing were in another league.

Posted in gear, social, technique, training | 6 Comments

Remembering how to run

Posted on August 12, 2012 by admin
They say that “you get good at what you train to do”. Well for the last couple of years I’ve been concentrating on running ultra’s, so I’ve been focussed on distance over speed. In an ideal world I would be splitting my time between speed, distance and hills, unfortunately I don’t live in that ideal world. The reality is there just aren’t the hours in the day.

Running between 50-60 miles a week at the peak of my training, there’s little time for rest days and especially as I often fit training in around running into work. Somedays I barely have the energy to do much more than shuffle around those training miles.

running feet
Watching the Olympics over the past couple of weeks I’ve noticed not only how impressively fast they are but just how different their technique is from my own. The heals of the olympic athletes coming that high that they practically kick themselves in the bum as they go along.

Running into work on friday morning I was about as far as its possible to get from running like an olympic athlete. It was 2 weeks since I’d ran the Lakeland 50, I’d just stepped up from a 12 mile week to a 30 mile week, and my calfs felt like they were made of stone, but it suddenly occurred to me that I could be pushing off a little harder.

Without really thinking about it I gave it a try. The extra boost from the push off brought my heals higher and to my surprise it also propelled my knees further forward extending my stride. I went from a 10 minute mile to an 8 minute mile. What’s more my calfs actually ached less when I was running at this faster pace than when I was running at the slower pace. I alternated around every half mile for the rest of the run, going between this faster pace and my normal pace. Instead of running a recovery run time I ran one of my fastest runs into the office i’d ran all year.

I’d experience improves in my pace before, after reading ‘born to run’ there was a gradual improvement over the course of a couple of weeks or a month, this was much more sudden, almost like flicking a switch. It was like I’d suddenly remembered how to run again. I just hope that I  can do the same again the next time I go out.
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Finally got the medal

Posted on August 4, 2012 by admin

There can be no worse feeling that having to drop out of a race before the end, especially when you’ve put in the training, recced the route and thoroughly tested your gear before hand. But that is exactly happened in last years Lakeland 100. Officially I was a DNF (did not finish) dropping out at Buttermere. Unofficially I managed to rejoin the race at the half way point and successfully completed the full Lakeland 50 in just under 17 hours. (There were special circumstances to my missing the cut off time and I rejoined the race with the organisers consent)

That 50 was one of the hardest races I’d ever completed. By the time I crossed the finish line I hadn’t slept in 42 hours, I’d ran a total of around 80 hilly miles on one of the hottest days of the year, my feet were blistered and I could barely take another step. Frankly I’m not sure if I would have finished at all if it had not been for the support of my brother to get me to the start and Grant Hamilton, with whom I ran with most of the course, but finish I did.

Lakeland 50 Finishers medal

Unfortunately while I may have ran the toughest 50 miles of my life, I had ran it unofficially. My time was not recorded and I did not get a finishers medal at the end of it. Of course i’d known right the start that there would be no medal at the end but none the less it still felt almost as bad as getting the DNF to watch the people i’d ran with all getting their medals while I sat outside the finishers area.

It was completely irrational to feel that way, I was really grateful that the organisers had permitted me to run the 50 at all and I’ve never been bothered about medals or certificates, I have draws full of those at home that I barely look at. But I still must have looked pretty miserable as I hobbled back to the car, mumbling about getting a damn medal next year.

Following my DNF I’ve went on to complete the 100k Northumberland Ultra and the 70 mile Race Race Wall, but I somehow hadn’t been able to muster the same enthusiasm for the this years LAKELAND as I had for last. I only made it over to the Lakes once for a training run, almost all of my training had been on the roads, with practically no hills at all, in fact I’d hardly thought about the race. It was as if something somewhere inside of me was stopping me from taking it seriously this year. Was I was preparing to fail, again?

All of that changed on the morning of the race. I was up at 3am, checking the overnight progress of the 100 milers as I ate breakfast my breakfast, then I was off driving through the dawn to Coniston, on arrival at the car park I wasted no time heading straight for registration, weighing in and going through kit checks. It suddenly seemed all to real… The magic was back. The adrenaline rush of the ultra, of facing the unknown, of pushing your body to its limits and trusting that you’d come through the other side.

I found Ian Young and David Best of Black Hill Bounders sitting outside their tent with the kettle boiling and sausages already in the frying pan. They’ve been running well all year and while I was going to start with them I wasn’t sure how I’d keep up. I joined them for a cup of tea and a last minute discussion on kit selection before we joined the others for the pre race briefing and boarder the busses to Dalemain.

Lakeland 50 start david coxon ian young

Unlike last year we set of at a much more sustainable rate and thankfully it was a little cooler this year which was making it easier going. My the time we’d reached Mardale Head I could feel myself falling behind, but once we reached the checkpoint and I got a bowl off soup and a couple of cups of flat cola inside me i was feeling back on form and the three of us managed to stay together pretty much the rest of the way around.

The Lakeland is regarded as one of the toughest Ultras in the UK and its for very good reason.The course really put you and your kit to the test, with a wide variety of terrain, your forced to constantly change tempo, from speed walking grassy hills, to rapidly descending rocky trails or pushing along pacey sections of road.

Possibly the one thing more varied than the terrain are the checkpoints going from a collection of tables in a farm in Howtown, to army style tents in Mardale Head car park, I’d go as far as saying Kentmere is infamous as checkpoints go with smoothies a mobile disco and even massage table, Ambleside is also a welcome site often with crouds of supporters at to an outdoor store and who could forget Chapel Style with its warm stew and open fire or the patio chairs at Tiberthwaite before that big final push. Each one a mile stone along the route, each one with its own character and charm, each one a part of what makes the Lakeland unique. [side note - Kentmere was a particular high point for me, as I not only got to have a much needed strawberry smoothie but I also got to catch up with Jo Allen of team Montane. - Jo and I used to work together].

Lakeland 50 finish Ian young david best david coxon

We finished in just under 13 hours and I finally got to picked up a finishers medal. I’d completed the course almost 4 hours faster than last year. While the medal will probably end up in the draw with all the others, I will wear my Lakeland 50 t-shirt with pride. The tech t-shirts from Sponsors Montane are amongst my favourite t-shirts and this year we even got a choice of colour. I went with red.

Montane Lakeland 50 t-shirt

With a drop out rate of around 60% again this year on the 100, I guess I’ll not be the only one that has to come back a second year to pick up their medal.

If the truth be know, while I might say that I came back to finally get a finishers medal, the reality is I put myself through it again not because I missed out on a medal last year, but because at heart I’m an ultra runner and the Lakeland 50 and 100 are amongst the finest ultra races in the world, so why wouldn’t I do it again, and again and again…and who knows one of these day I might have another go at the hundred.

Posted in motivation, planning, racing, training, ultra | 6 Comments

Testing the waterproofs

Posted on July 25, 2012 by admin
My Montane Lakeland 100 t-shirt is probably my favourite top. In fact I  like it so much I recently went out and bought another just like it (without the Lakeland logo of course). They are a great fit, they feel substantial enough for the winter and yet are cool enough for running in summer. What’s that got to do with waterproofs I hear you asking, well while I was buying the t-shirt I couldn’t resist picking up a Montane Atomic Jacket.
The week after making this purchase we were hit by some of the worst storms we’d had in decades, with widespread flooding across the region. What better opportunity to but my new jacket to the test. Heading over to the Lakes the roads started to look like rivers, the drains unable to clear the driving rain as quickly as it was falling. As I parked at Pooley Bridge I watched a group of walkers from the car in front make their way over the road and onto the fells, my the time i’d changed into my fell shoes and checked my bag, they were crossing back over the road having decided it was too wet for walking. I ran the 10 miles to just short of Mardale Head via Howtown and then back again. The rain stopped for a while as I made my way up from Howtown to the Roman Road, but by that time like my fell shoes my base layer was pretty wet.

Unsure as to whether it was the weather or simply sweat that had caused this dampness I contacted Montane via there facebook page to ask ‘how waterproof a water proof should be’. Montane’s customer service was quite excellent. They posted a response almost immediately offering to test the jacket for me. I replied saying that I was actually more interested in finding out about the tech specs than returning the jacket. The response was a fantastic post detailing water resistance and breathability across their jacket range.
Basically there are 4 things to look out for when buying a running water proof.

  • Weight
  • Size
  • Hydrostatic Head
  • Moisture Vapour Transmission Rate (MVTR).
Obviously weight makes a difference as you have to carry it, as does size, you need to get in in your pack (when your not running in it).

Hydrostatic Head is basically how high a column of water you need before droplets of water start to seep through a sample of the fabric stretch across the bottom of a tube of 1 inch diameter left for 24 hours. The problem with this measures is it does not take into account factors like wind driving rain through the fabric, or the fabric rubbing against wet vegitation, your arms or pack. As a minimum european waterproofs have to have a Hydrostatic Head of 1500mm to resist light showers, but as activities just as kneeling can add up to 8000mm. So for use in active sports a fabric would have to be able to withstand at least 10,000mm to resist heavy rain and driving wind.

[The Atomic has 10,000mm while the Minimus 20,000 and Classic GoreTex 28,000mm]

Moisture Vapour Transmission Rate is a measure of a fabrics breathability, or the amount of water vapour the fabric will allow out in 24 hours. The average person will produce between 0.5 and 1L of sweat during 30 minutes of moderate to heavy exercise, depending on a number of factors like how hot it is, whether there’s a breeze, how many layers the person is wearing, how fit they are etc. If you multiply this by 48 you get to between 24 and 48L which is the sort of Moisture Vapour Transmission Rate that would be needed to keep dry under these condition. The Moisture Vapour Transmission Rate therefore as important if not more so than the Hydrostatic Head. After all there’s not much use in stopping water getting in, if your already wet on the inside.

[The Atomic has a MVTR of 8000g, the Minimus 20,000g]

So it was probably the Moisture Vapour Transmission Rate of the Atomic at 8000g that caused me to get wet on my run and not the Hydrostatic Head at 10,000mm. It would seem that I may have been better of spending a little more and buying something like the Air at 20,000mm and 21,000g which is better suited to the requirements of running in these more extreme conditions.

Looking back I could have done a couple of things to ensure I stayed drier longer. Firstly I could have taken a base layer off when I put the water proof on. I was warm enough running without the jacket, so adding an additional layer just made me sweat more. I could have also tried to reduced the amount of pressure on the fabric by not brushing past vegetation as I ran or adjusting my back pack so the straps didn’t flap against the jacket.
rain illustration
Even by English summer standards we’ve seen some pretty extreme weather this year, which has been wet enough to put any waterproofs to the test…So if you like running in the rain but not necessarily getting soaked to the skin, then my advice would be…go for the highest MVTR rating you can afford when buying your next running waterproof .
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The art of running

Posted on July 21, 2012 by admin

After last years Lakeland 100, I received an email from my Himalayan 100 room mate Paul Stoneley, saying I was in the Trail Running Magazine race photo. I’d just out missed out on being able to buy a copy as it was now last months issue and no longer available, so Paul sent me his copy when he’d finished with it. I was in the far background, the tiniest of dots really. I barely noticed myself, even when i’d been told I was in the photo. When I asked Paul how on earth he’d spotted me, his response was that he recognised by Baseball cap and running style.

To be honest I hadn’t really thought of myself as having a running style, much less one that was recognisable from a tiny dot on a photo in a magazine. I didn’t  think any more of the photo or the comment until last week when I was asked to do some drawings of runners for an art project in a couple of weeks time. The project was a printing project being ran by Northern Print,  at Sage the Music Venue next door the the Gallery I work at. They were looking for solid black and white images of runners that they could print.

Over the years I’ve collected plenty of photos of myself running  in various races and events i’d taken part in, so it was an easy enough task to take a few shots into photoshop to crop myself out and paint my profile into solid black. After completing a few images, I got the idea to copy and paste a few profiles together to create a sort of group shot of 4 or 5  me’s running together.

They say a picture says a thousand word and this one certainly was no exception. Seeing myself as a  black and white outline really highlighted just how high I hold my arms, how far my elbows stick out, how far my legs cross over and how much I tilt my head as I run.

It’s funny whenever I see another run I instantly analyse their technique, thinking that they need to extend their stride, push their knees out more, lean a little further forward, hold their arms lower or fasten their pack tighter. It turns out I should have been taking a closer look at my own style.

The bridges festival will be taking place in a couple of weeks and i’m looking forward to seeing what they’ll do with my drawings. The image above of course will not be one of those produces as some shades of grey and some blurring to the shadows for this blog post.

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Hitting ‘the Wall’

Posted on July 18, 2012 by admin

This year saw the inaugural running  of  ’The Wall”, a 24 hour, 69 mile race from Carlisle to the Millenium Bridge. Billed by organiser Urban Rat as “the UK’s most scenic ultra” it was always going to be a tempting race, even with the £150 price tag. The fact that it was being ran over my birthday weekend and that the course came within 1/2 a mile of my house finally tip the scales in its favour and I signed up, way back in October just after completing the Northumbrian Ultra.

Back then I had no idea that running wise it was going to be a pretty poor winter. Having strained by hamstrings yet again during the Northumbrian Ultra, I look it easy for a few months to allow them a full recovery, then we were into Christmas, then there was flew and a succession of colds after which things went a bit mad at work with the resignation of a colleague. Before I knew it, it was mid march and my monthly milages were barely into double figures. With 10 weeks to go I was barely scraping round a 1/2 marathon. I would love to say that I put everything into training for the next six weeks but I simply didn’t have the time or energy. A couple of weeks before ‘the wall’ I’d invested in a new pair of trainers, which while feeling great to begin with, suddenly started giving me calf problems with a week to go. I did the only thing I could at that point, booked myself in for some sports massage and crossed my fingers. At this point I was thinking that it couldn’t get much worse, but then came the rain.

The rain seemed relentless we drove west. The Tyne was higher than i’d seen it and it had burst its banks in a couple of places as we passed flooded field after field. When we eventually arrived at Carlisle the car park looked different to the way it had looked the day before, when we came over to register, we soon realised that was because 1/2 of the car park was underwater, with water still rushing in from the nearby railway track which itself was under 4 feet of water by this stage. Barely having got out of the car we realised that the whole car park could soon be under water and headed for higher ground. I driver abandoning their car altogether when it got stuck. Unsurprisingly the start was delayed to give runners a chance to get to the start with the weather.

carlisle flood

As the race got underway the rain began to ease off. Of course the ground was still water logged, so it was wet feet from the off, but it didn’t seem to dampen anyones spirits. There was plenty of banter between runners as people swopped stories about previous races and theirs plans for the next ones.

The initial pace was deceptively fast on the relatively flat roads around Carlisle. Without really intending to I completed the first 13 miles in not much less that my great north run pace. I still had 56 mile to go.

Despite having had reservations as to whether my calfs would be up to running at all right up until the day before, I was feeling pretty good. My only problem was that my hamstrings felt a little tight, I was having to hold back a little on the descents, but other than that all was good.

As alway I found myself running with the same group of people some passing each other on the various up or downs depending on our individual strengths, and chatting along the way. Its amazing how much you get to know people over 70 miles and company makes the miles pass quickly.

While they called it ‘the wall’ not much of the course is actual along the roman wall itself with much of it on the roads. Wall or no Wall the scenery along the route is stunning, and although i’ve lived in Northumberland most of my life the route took me to a couple of places i’d never seen before.

the wall

This was my 3rd or 4th ultra, and by by comparison to races like the Lakeland 100 or the Northumbrian 100k Ultra, there had been very little information about the exact route or what sort of food was going to be available at the feed stations and checkpoints along the way. I was’t quite sure what to expect. In the end I was pleasantly surprised by how often the checkpoints and feed stations came up and how well the route was marshalled.

I’d left a drop bag at the half way stage and was glad of a change of shirt and to restock on gels after 35 miles. I didn’t really want to hang around too long, so passing on the offer of soup I headed straight out again and began climbing the steepest incline of the day. During the long section along the road towards fourstones the field had spread out a little and I found myself running on my own for the first time all day.  That didn’t last long though as the route soon took a turn off the road and onto a section of trail for a miles or two, at which point I caught up with the guy in front of me. We ran the next few miles together.

Before I knew it we’d reached Hexham, where I’d arranged to see my wife. I arrive shortly before she did. The sun had just come out and I sat and changed into dry socks for the first time in 40 miles. Its amazing what dry socks, an iced coffee and a few minutes with your loved ones can do to re-motivate you.

The next 26 miles would take me past our house and along the track I regularly run to work. In theory it should have been a piece of cake, but without having put in as much training as I should have it was going to be pretty slow going. Luckily my brother, his wife and their 2 kids came along to meet me along the next section, which was lifted by spirits and pushed me along the final few miles around the river to the final check point.

The last 6 miles seemed to take forever, by this time my legs were stiffening up and I could hardly move them past my centre line. I was having to take twice and many steps and not getting anywhere fast. Overall I’d made good time upuntil then and it wasn’t yet getting dark as I made it to the quayside and had the finish line in site.

My wife had arrived just in time to see my come over the finish line in 14 hours and 12 minutes. Collecting my t-shirt I sat down on the steps with Lucinda to catch my breath as we watch a few people coming in behind me, before I finally headed off for a long awaited shower.

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Running books

Posted on July 15, 2012 by admin

I’ve always saw myself as the kind of person that went out and did stuff rather than the reading about it or watched it on TV.  I rarely even read papers let alone the sports sections. So I think I was as surprised as anyone when I looked back and realised just how many running books i’d managed to read. The majority of these books have been received as gifts and possibly would never have been the ind of book I would have bought for myself, but in their own way most have affected my running.

Looking back on it, it wasn’t until I was inspired by ‘born to run’ that I truly believed that I could take on my first big Ultra. So its maybe about time that I wrote a few words of my own about these inspirational books that have entertained and motivated me to run to new levels.

running books

Feet in the clouds – A tale of fell running and obsession, Richard Askwith.

This is Richard Askwith’s first book, but right from the first page, his passion for the sport, his abilities as a writer and a his jounalistic research skills are very obvious.

The book alternates between the compelling stories of the autor’s attempts to run the notorious Bob Graham round in under 24 hours, the history of english fell running.

One of the things that inspired me most about this book was that the author, while managing to achieve his goal of running the Bob graham, was a very ordinary middle of the pack runner, he hadn’t won any medals or set any records.

Shortly after finishing the book I started fell running, one of my first races was Borrowdale amongst the greatest Lakeland fell runs and where I met the legendary Joss Naylor for the first time, it was almost as if the book was coming to life.

Born to Run - The hidden tribe, the ultra-runners, and the greatest race the greatest race the world has ever seen , Christopher McDougall.

This is has to be one of the most popular running books ever written, paced more like a action adventure novel than a running book it tells an amazing tail of finding Caballo blanco and running against the Tarahumana.

Like ‘Feet in the clouds’, ‘Born to run’ alternates between the main story and background information on the greatest ultra runs and runners telling each as its own small tale, but ‘born to run’ also tells another story the story of how we evolved to be the ultimate running machines.

A very strange thing happened as I read ‘born to run’ without thinking about it my running style changed very sightly, the length of my stride extended, my arms droppen a little and my times gradually it wasn’t something i’d consiously set out to do just little things i’d picked up while reading the book.

Like ‘Feet in the clouds’ before it ‘Born to run’ again inspired me to push my running to the next level, moving from marathons and fell running on to Ultra, completing the Lakeland 50, Northumbrian 100k and the Wall 70 mile races.

Barefoot Runner – the life of Marathon champion Abebe Bikila , Paul Rambali.

Part sports biography, part political thriller, the ‘Barefoot Runner’ tells the story of Abebe Bikila, the first African to win an Olympic gold medal and his swedish coach Omni Niskanen.

Unlike many of the other running books, ‘Barefoot runner’ is not trying to become some sort of running bible, nor is it told by the author himself (Abebe having died some years ago).In fact you have to read almost 1/4 of the book before you get to the first mention of a race This book simply tells the remarkable story of Abebe Bikila, from his growing up as a child in Africa to his winning Olympic glory in Rome in 1960.

This book did not inspired to get up and push my running to a new level as much as the previous 2 books, but it was certainly a very interesting read and it gave me a new level of respect for some of the distances that some runners will go to achieve greatness and some of the obstacles that they may have had to overcome to get to the podium.

Ultramarathon Man – confessions of an all-night runner, Dean Karnazes.

In this the first of a series of books by the now legendary ultra runner Dean Karnazes, we learn about Dean’s first experiences as a cross country and track runner about the death of his sister and a night on the town that triggered a return to running and the awesome fetes of endurance that followed.

The book is  step by step account of the ups and down of some of the toughest races the planet has to offer. The boston globe describes it as ‘a tail of ordinary people doing extraordinary things’ and for me that sums up its charm. Dean Karnazes comes across as an every day guy that fits his running in around his job and his family like the rest of us, he simply puts on his trainers after work and goes out and runs, and boy can he run.

I have only just finished reading ‘Ultra Marathon Man’, and already I’ve bought the follow up ‘RUN!’  I am a little scared that after being inspired to run ultra races by ‘Born to run’ that i’ll be equally inspired to just go out and run crazy distances into the night by ‘Ultra marathon man’.

Eat and Run – My unlikely journey to Ultramarathon greatness, Scott Jurek.

Scott Jurek is one of the greatest ultra distance runners around today, He’s one of a growing number of vegetarian runers and was featured in Chris McDougll’s ‘born to run’, he now has a book of his own, which includes a number of recipe’s.  I’ve yet to read the book having only picked it up yesterday, but I can recommend the recipe for Red Curry Almond Sauce, which I made last night.

With the growing popularity of Ultra running there seems to be a growing appetite for these kinds of running books, which are in turn inspiring more of us to get out and push our running to new levels. If you have any recommendations for running books or would like to share experiences that these books have inspired you to, please leave a comment below.

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