Stories and tips from around the world.
The last time we went to Guernsey it hadn’t gone to plan for Carmen due to the eye infection leading to events that required her to pull out of the race early. I can’t imagine it had been an easy decision, but it had been a sensible one. It did however leave her with unfinished business, and the need to return again. I’d taken about twenty minutes off my time, and I was close to a sub-7 hour race. …
Returning to Guernsey for another go at GU36 - the unique race that covers a complete lap of the island along cliff paths, and all manner of terrain. It was a chance to beat last year's time, and perhaps see if I'd still got faster times in me.
Having done Race to the King and Race to the Stones, when Race to the Tower started it was one I wanted to try as well to complete the set (although ...Castle has started and finished since then too) although it took a few years to get there at first due to it clashing with Endure24, and then due to the global pandemic. At last though, I was ready to reach the start line for my last ultra marathon of 2022.
This was a race I'd been waiting a long time to do, and it was one of the highlights of a really nice weekend away seeing friends. Sure there was rain, but there was sun as well. There was just the 'small' matter of running 36 miles, 16 of which would be going up and down cliffs with lots of steps. Sounds like a challenge!
A return to Wasing Park for another go at Endure 24 with no fixed plan, just a vague idea that it'd be nice to do more miles than before. Could I run that far so soon after Malawi?
Of all my races for this year, this was the one race I most had my doubts about. For a while I’ve been keen on one day doing the Marathon des Sables, and I thought doing some longer races would help see if I could cope with that. My original intention had been to enter Race to the King and Race to the Stones, both as two day events. When it came to booking I decided to book Race to the King first, …
Race to the King and Race to the Stones are two events I’ve heard a lot about and from what I’d seen they appeared to be quite scenic. It was fairly early on I started considering doing at least one of these events, though I’d been in awe of those I’d seen complete Race to the Stones in 2015. Both of these events have a number of options: the full distance in one go, the full distance split into …
I’d heard of the 'Endure 24' race before, though I knew absolutely nothing about it other than the obvious – that it was a 24 hour race. In my mind it was like the running equivalent of Le Mans – the famous endurance car racing event which is coming up to it’s 100th year. After I’d already signed up for both Race to the King and Race to the Stones I was asked by Charly to join her team – “Team Hal …
After doing the London Marathon I’d started to think that doing an ultra marathon at the end of 2016 might be a good idea, eventually though I decided to go for one a little sooner – the 50K route of Canalathon in March 2016. Once my races for 2015 were over I started my training for the ultra marathon by going for another run streak for Advent Running. This time I managed just over 150 miles in 2 …
