Over The Contours

Herbert Gatliff was one of the founding members of the Croydon YHA Group, founded in 1934. In 1984, to celebrate its fiftieth anniversary, the Gatliff 50k ultra marathon was organised. Now in its 35th year, the Gatliff 50k is still going strong. The course changes every year, but it broadly follows the same principle as it's always done; rural cross country around West Kent/East Sussex, multiple checkpoints and a time limit of ten hours. Participants can walk, jog or run...all for just a £10 entry fee. The route isn't marked, and written turn-by-turn instructions are provided on the day. Saying that, a sketch map is made available in advance and so I used this to familiarise myself with the route. Leg 1 Leg 1: Edenbridge to Toys Hill At around 8.25am I left Edenbridge Rugby Club and followed the directions out of the town, through the churchyard and into open fields. As I passed a number of other participants, I soon realised that I needed to reassess my finish time ex

Red Burn On something of a whim, Abigail and I had decided to drive to the Highlands for three days in the October break. The weather forecast wasn't brilliant, but I was determined that if we'd driven all that way I would have a crack at running Britain's highest mountain. So, early on a dark and misty October morning, I left our hotel and took the short drive to Fort William. I parked at the Glen Nevis visitors centre. The car park was empty, except for one chap who I overtook just as I crossed the River Nevis. As the day started to break, I started to climb. At first the gradient was relatively tame, however, the path soon became steep and the steps deeper. I had originally planned to run a circular route over the Carn Mor Dearg arete, however, visibility was very poor and so I opted to run a simple out and back along the main tourist path. The CMD would have to wait until another day. The steepening path, and the worsening weather, made the ascent heavy going.

Chester is a special place and I have many fond memories of my 'home' city; countless visits with my mum and dad when I was a kid, trips with my mates as a teenager, driving there when I'd first passed my driving test and visits with my wife, Abigail. So, it was quite apt that on Sunday 7th October 2018 I was able to make another happy memory in the city. As the town crier sounded the race start klaxon, a few thousand runners made their way off the Roodee Racecourse. I was one of them. I'd managed to get fairly close to the front pen, just behind the 3 hour pacers. As we left the racecourse and headed onto the city's streets, I broke into a comfortable stride and pace. I started to move a little quicker than the 3 hour pacers; I wasn't too concerned about this as I'd probably slow down at some point and end up behind them. We passed under the Eastgate Clock; I smiled as I reminded myself how much training I'd put in for this. I was hoping to finish

Heading up Whiteless Pike Sitting at my desk at some point in early summer I'd plotted a speculative fell running route from Buttermere via Whiteless Pike and Crag Hill, all the way over to Causey Pike and Barrow. If I'm perfectly honest, I saved it and then never looked at it again until we arrived in the Lakes on our next trip. The route was around 12 miles, not huge, but there was a hefty amount of ups and downs. I saw it as a greedy run in that the route deliberately did lots of out and backs and criss-crossing to pack in as my Wainwrights as possible. Regardless, I loaded the route onto my watch, plotted the route on my OS map and set off very early on a Sunday morning in late August. I parked next to the church in Buttermere. The sun had only really just risen and, looking up towards Whiteless Pike and beyond, most of my route appeared to be in the clouds. I ran down into Buttermere village, crossed the bridge opposite the Bridge Hotel and took a sharp right followi

This was something of an undertaking; I’d been planning a long fell run for months and had selected the far eastern fells as a good location as I’d be able to ridge-run whilst hoovering up a collection of new Wainwrights. After a long-ish drive, I parked near The Coombs at Howtown. There was a fine rain in the air and visibility wasn’t great. My route started with a quick dart up Hallin Fell. Standing at 388 metres, I should have had a good view over Ullswater…I didn’t. The only moderately impressive aspect was the large cairn. Anyway, onwards. Re-crossing the road near where I parked, I followed the path to the right of the church before heading up the steep and rough path over Steel Knotts and Pikeawassa. After Pikeawassa I had ended up getting soaked by dense bracken as I followed the wall towards Brownthwaite Crag. At this point I took a left and passed the remains of an old hunting lodge overlooking Ullswater. The cloud was clearing a little, so I was took in some views.

I tried my best to make the most of our short time in Snowdonia and this run didn't disappoint. Leaving our hostel at Dolwyddelan early, I headed northeast over the Sarn Helen Roman road route. The farm track quickly turns to trail and it wasn't long before I was steadily climbing. The sun started to rise just as I began my descent from Rhiwddolion. A steep and slippery descent brought me onto the A5, which I followed west for a couple of miles. I was wearing my trail shoes and the tarmac wasn't the nicest surface to be running on. Shortly after Swallow Falls I took a right turn at the Ty-Hyll house, climbing an unrelentingly steep road up to Tynymynydd, where I then turned left and followed the forest road to Llyn Geirionydd. Llyn Geirionydd looked beautiful in morning sun; a light mist hung over the water and the valley was perfectly silent. I followed the eastern bank of the lake before bearing west over the steep forest trail into the adjoining valley. Water was run

I suppose I am now a fully-fledged parkrun tourist as this morning I completed my first parkrun outside of the UK and somehow managed to finish first! We're staying at my sister's house in northern France and the nearest parkrun is Parkrun de Rouen. Rouen is a lovely city on the River Seine and the parkrun takes place on the southern stretch of the river. A 70-mile drive meant an early start through the beautiful rolling French countryside. It was only when I entered Rouen itself that I realised it's a far bigger city than I realised; the city centre rises up the hillsides away from the river with multiple bridges criss-crossing over the Seine. I was aiming for Quai (dock) 106; a former dockyard area that's been gentrified and is now a very smart and welcoming area. The start of the parkrun is relatively easy to find, even with the roadworks currently in place. There's a large free carpark right next to the start. So, on a warm June morning, around thirty pe

At some point last week, my wife, sister-in-law and her husband decided that we would all drive up to Northampton to see my father-in-law; knowing me too well, my wife pointed out that I wouldn't make the trip unless I got to do a parkrun on the way (I sound like right git reading that back...). Anyway, this seemed like the perfect opportunity for me to bag a new parkrun. I opened up the parkrun map and looked for one close to the M25, but not so far from home that we'd have to leave at a stupidly early time...that's when I noticed Gunpowder. With a name like that, I'd already made my mind up. Now, as you may know from my previous post, I'm a stressy sort and as I wasn't driving I wasn't in complete control of the time we'd arrive. We left Kent a little late and the sat nav listed our ETA at 8.59 - not good. If we were to hit any traffic on the way it would be a disaster. Anyway, remarkably, Dave managed to shave over ten minutes off the ETA (legally,

I've been very lucky in the last couple of weeks; a short break to stay at my sister's house in northern France, followed by a conference in Edinburgh. Of course, whenever I go somewhere new I see it as an excellent opportunity to squeeze in as many runs as I can. I generally subscribe to the view that a change is as good as a rest and so France and Edinburgh in the space of two weeks seemed ideal. This was my first visit to my sister's place in Frohen-sur-Authie; a small village in the Somme region. I'd eagerly plotted a couple of runs, including an 18-miler, only to be told by my brother-in-law (who is a keen cyclist) that the routes I had plotted were either very hilly or on busy roads. With Steve's input, I went back to the drawing board and re-plotted a decent long route which included a long stint on the disused La Gare railway route from Bernatre to Auxi-le-Chateau; this would be my 'long Tuesday' run. You are now entering... On arrival in Fr

Some things are found by chance; the inaugural Dartford Heath parkrun was one of them. Friday, I was eating my lunch and killing time between meetings by exploring the parkrun map. By pure chance I inadvertently zoomed into the west Kent area and noticed two parkrun icons in the Dartford region. Strange. I knew about the existing Dartford parkrun, but I wasn't aware of anything else nearby. I quickly discovered this was the Dartford Heath parkrun and that this was due to have its inaugural event the very next day. I know there's something of an unwritten rule that tourists (and pseudo-tourists like me) should avoid inaugural events in order to not overload the volunteer team and cause unnecessary work, however, the serendipity of finding this event and the fact that it would start the very next day, well....surely it was a sign! I decided I'd break the unwritten rule and make the 55 minute journey to Dartford... I was in the same county at least. The course is on the h

This is a parkrun that's nearby, but not so nearby you could just nip up the road to do it. Nonetheless, I'm keen to finish all of the parkruns in Kent and I'd heard really good things about the Royal Tunbridge Wells one, so decided to make the 100 mile round trip on this lovely bank holiday weekend. I set out nice and early in the morning sunshine which was probably for the best as I was soon passed by a precession of Police cars along the M2. I only realised they were heading in the same direction as I was when I reached the A249 and was confronted with a huge queue of traffic. In the distance I could see smoke billowing around three or four miles up the road. I was extremely lucky; had I have been perhaps two or three metres up the tarmac, I would have missed the one and only opportunity to do a u-turn...a tiny access ramp between the carriageways. Anyway, a u-turn is just what I did and I quickly re-routed via Blue Bell Hill. So, at around 8.30am I pulled into Dunor

Sunday 8th April 2018… my second crack at the Greater Manchester Marathon. Abigail and I had spent the week in the Lake District, so my preparation and discipline went well out of the window in the week before the event. However, I’d trained harder than I’d ever done before and covered far more miles than I had done with the London and Bournemouth Marathons, and indeed last year’s Greater Manchester Marathon. A nice easy drive into Trafford from Northwich set the day up nicely. Me being me, I’d arrived stupidly early, so once I’d located the car parks at Old Trafford, I had about 90 minutes to wait for the athlete’s village to open. By the time I reached the athlete’s village it was already very busy and I was shivering (more with nerves than actual cold). A crowded bag-drop didn’t help, but I was soon out on Bridgewater Way and picking my way over to Start Point B. There was an acceptance this time around; I’d put in the hard miles and knew that I was capable of 24 miles, on a

Finally my hometown has a Parkrun ! Despite now living over 200 miles away, I'd spotted some mutterings on Facebook and in other places about a Northwich Parkrun. It's had a junior Parkrun for some time now, so I thought it was only a matter of time before it would get its own proper one. I managed to work it so that Abigail and I could be staying at my mum and dad's place en route to the Lake District; in doing so, I was able to get to the inaugural event. The course is based in Carey Park, just to the north of the town centre. There is ample free car parking nearby, although I took advantage of its proximity to my parents' place by running there. After a friendly welcome from Amy the Run Director and some warm applause for everyone that made the event happen and we were off. The first mile is a loop around the gravel track circling the large cow field; midway through the loop there's an energy-sapping hill/switchback to watch out for. After mile 1, you then

The 3rd March 2018; the day the earth stood still. Well, not quite, but most of the UK did as a blanket of ice and snow - "the Beast from the East" - covered the country. Parkrun took a huge hit this weekend; somewhere close to 410 cancellations. I'd been keeping a close eye on forecasts for much of the week as Abigail and I were travelling to Brighton for a gig on the Saturday evening. Over the duration of the week, forecasts shifted constantly and it became increasingly apparent that travel would be tricky. By the Thursday a number of parkruns had already been cancelled as a precaution; in fact, my local runs at Pegwell Bay, Canterbury, Whitstable and Margate had already cancelled by this point. Fortunately, the parkruns in the vicinity of Brighton and Eastbourne all looked to be going ahead. By Friday the list of cancellations had continued to increase and the weather forecast was increasingly dire. A snow-day email from work gave me the opportunity to reassess thi