Madeira Island Ultra Trail 2021. Two years of waiting for a rescheduled race only to crash out after 5K with a broken ankle
With hindsight I can look back and say that I had the most fantastic adventure.After 2 years of Covid enforced absence, I had made it back to France and the big mountains that I love.
I have just returned from a weekend marshalling at events in the Glen Lyon Ultra. This was the first Scottish Athletics licensed event since lockdown. It was racing, not quite as we have grown to know it, but remarkably familiar to those people who were around when ultras were just starting out in Scotland and …
The ballot gods have spoken and so for the most part the adventures for the coming year have been decided. A few people have asked me recently about where I find these races and why I do them. A while back I wrote a bit of a blog about the types of race which pique …
Do you have what it takes to dream scary big dreams and dare to enter the race? Do you have what it takes to stand on the start, surrounded but very alone? Do you have what it takes to climb hill after hill, though the summits are far out of sight? Do you have what …
Strive: verb to try very hard to do something or to make something happen, especially for a long time or against difficulties: I like the word Strive. I think it is so important, especially as we get older that we keep striving. Striving keeps us energised, relevant and ultimately alive. I have always been a striver, its in my nature. Even as a …
We are a pretty experienced support crew PT Boy, H and I. PT Boy does logistics, H does Tough Love while I do the running “encouragement”. Sitting in a field waiting for your runner is a frustrating experience when they are not having a good day. You feel completely helpless as there is nothing you …
What follows is the tale of an adventure. Others who ran this race will have a different adventure. Theirs will undoubtedly be faster with much less sweating and swearing. This is mine. It may bear no resemblance to what actually happened but it is how I remember it. Cilaos, Cilaos, oh Cilaos I arrived in …
It is more or less 4 weeks since I ran the Madeira Island Ultra Trail which took me the best part of 30 hours. I still have a little numbness in my toes and the remnants of my blisters are still visible and finishing the healing process with new skin growing in. It doesn’t take …
I have been thinking a lot about motivation recently. I find running really difficult and many times not particularly pleasant experience, so why do I keep doing it. Motivation is one of the four legs which support the ultra running table upon which we dine – Motivation, Resilience, Training and Execution. Take away any one …