Over The Contours

When I was a kid growing up in the north, I'd often hear on the weather forecast of scorching temperatures in Gravesend, Kent. I grew up thinking that Gravesend had its own little microclimate; a sun-drenched oasis in the garden of England. Anyway, it turns out that Gravesend just happens to have one of the lowest positioned weather stations in the UK and soil with a propensity to heat up quickly in the sunlight. Well, either way, Gravesend lived up to its expectations this Sunday as the North Downs Run, which starts and ends just outside Gravesend, was by far the hottest race I've ever participated in. As we gathered next to the Cascades Leisure Centre in Thong, the sun was already beating down. Lots of runners stayed in the shade for as long as they could before the race started. Fortunately, my travel companion and fellow runner Chris had brought some sun screen with him and I gave myself a liberal coating. Chris and I shuffled into the start area ready for the 10.30am s

The dreaded leg 3; the leg that I'd read so much about..."the climbing leg". Well, on Sunday it was my turn to see for myself. Leg 3 poses some logistical challenges for a recce; namely because the start (Dunmail Raise) and end (Wasdale) are a good hour and thirty minutes away from each other by car. Because of this, I'd arranged with Abigail (the BGR widow) to collect me from Seathwaite in Borrowdale. To that end, I'd run leg 3 and then walk from Wasdale Head via Sty Head to Seathwaite. After a short and slow walk from Grasmere, I reached the starting point at Dunmail Raise. It was 6.00am and there was a little collective of people parked in the lay-by. I didn't get close enough to say hello, but I have a pretty strong feeling that they were a support crew for a Bob Graham attempt. I crossed the stile and began the steep climb up to Steel Fell and Dead Pike. The weather was pretty good; no rain and relatively mild. Some patches of blue sky were appearin

It was a typical Cumbrian morning; wet and breezy. I was staying near Sedburgh for a friend's stag-do-that-wasn't-a-stag-do; basically a collective of geeks, nerds and outdoor enthusiasts in a converted barn in the middle of nowhere. I reckon more board games were brought than alcohol. Anyway, never one to miss an opportunity I escaped early and made the seventy mile round-trip to Fell Foot park, Newby Bridge. This is a parkrun that I've wanted to do for ages. We travel to the Lakes four or five times a year and I'd never managed to get it to work logistically; until now. I parked in the National Trust car park (free for members, obviously) and decided to brave the rain and go for a warm up. A couple of hardy volunteers were already out and about placing cones and putting up signage. The park is beautiful, even in the greyest of conditions. I had a vague idea of where the course would run and followed this as part of my warm up. I followed the shore of Windermere

Abigail won a Salomon sportswear competition and the 'prize' was to go to the Surrey Hills with all of the other winners and test a range of Salomon kit. Never one to miss an opportunity, I saw this as a perfect chance to a) get a new parkrun in and b) do a long run through the Surrey Hills. I ran Cranleigh parkrun; an undulating and grassy little parkrun close to the town centre. I came fourth, which I was happy with considering we'd arrived with only eight minutes to spare. Abigail had dropped me off at the parkrun and then headed off six miles away to Birtley Green where she would meet up with the Salomon folks. I knew I had until around 1pm to keep myself occupied so I'd plotted a long run that would eventually take me over Leith Hill, Holmbury Hill and Pitch Hill, making my way over to Birtley Green where Abigail was. "There's no real hills in the South", I thought. How wrong I was. The run started in Cranleigh, straight after the parkrun. I meand

It was a sunny and mild April morning as we drove along the A66 towards Threlkeld. My legs were still a little beaten from the Manchester Marathon and from the Loughrigg Fell race the evening before, but nevertheless, I was keen to make the most of the weather and the time in the Lakes to do a recce of leg 2 of the Bob Graham round. When I plotted the route I’d come to consider leg 2 as one of the easier sections of the round; a long slog of a climb up to Clough Head from Threlkeld and then a long, but steady, ridge run over the Dodds, Helvellyn and down to the Grisedale Tarn. In a way this is exactly what leg 2 is, however, what I hadn’t accounted for was the amount of relative elevation loss and gain whilst on the ridge. Leg 2 “officially” begins in Threlkeld, heading south by the disused quarry and then onto Hausewell Brow. For convenience, Abigail dropped me off just south of Threlkeld so that I could begin the route along the Old Coach Road beneath the Threlkeld Knott

Three days after the Manchester Marathon and I was huddled with two hundred or so other runners at Rothay Park in Ambleside awaiting the start of the Loughrigg Fell race; a four mile out and back evening race. We'd had a stunning day of Lakeland weather and it was a beautiful evening as the last of the day's sun cast long shadows over the surrounding fells. I was unsure of how I would perform so I positioned myself further back than usual. I realised my error as soon as we set off as two hundred people all funnelled onto the narrow stone bridge crossing the River Rothay. Shortly after the bridge, the route zig zags up a gravel track. I felt reasonably good so I managed to meander past some of the other runners to try to get myself a little more space. After about half a mile, the track turns to fell and I was able to begin picking my own way over the terrain. My watch soon buzzed to signify I'd completed the first mile; at this stage the incline increased and the hard w

Manchester; a city of music, knowledge, politics, and sport; the industrious beating heart of northern England and epicentre of some of mankind's greatest achievements. Alright, perhaps I'm a tad biased; I grew up twenty minutes outside the city, went to University there and have many fond memories of gigs, football matches and nights out. It's no surprise therefore that I'm equally fond of what is billed as the UK's "flattest, fastest and friendliest marathon" - the ASICS Greater Manchester Marathon 2019. This was my third year in a row running the Greater Manchester Marathon, but my first representing Thanet Roadrunners. I wasn't alone either; fellow Thanet Roadrunners Abigail Cardwell, Andrew Richardson, Jasmine Lasslett, Simon Cowdery and Phil Stevens were all there too. Like last year I parked at Old Trafford. I was ridiculously early and spent a fair amount of time sitting in the car thinking about my race strategy (or lack of). Abigail and A

So my Bob Graham preparations have begun in earnest. I've earmarked the summer of 2020 for my attempt and I'm doing all I can between now and then to make sure the attempt is a successful one. I've broadly broken the training down into two halves; being 'Bob Graham' fit - that is, being able to run 66 miles and 27,000ft in under twenty-four hours - and being familiar enough with each leg of the route so that navigation is as straightforward as it can possibly be on the attempt itself. The first is a little easier as I have enough hills and challenging terrain around me in Kent to get my fitness to where it needs to be. The second is a little harder as it's not as if I can nip up to the Lakes every weekend to recce each leg. What I can do however is aim to recce each of the five legs each time we visit the Lakes, which is typically four times a year. Mid-February; Abigail and I are up in the Lakes for a few days. I messaged my friend Steve to see if he would b

On an unseasonably mild Saturday in February I parked up in Wath Brow, just beside the River Ehen. I followed a stream of runners to the race HQ; a horsebox at the side of road. Two friendly chaps gave me my race number and took my £4 entry fee. Jarrett's Jaunt is a handicap race; the handicap having been worked out in the weeks prior and based on performance in recent fell races. For me this was tricky as this was my first fell race and so my handicap was calculated based on my parkrun times. Writing my start time on the back of my hand, I realised I was in the final few batches of runners... no pressure then. After a short warm-up run, I made my way to the race start. The race start was wonderfully unceremonious; due to the handicap, myself and two other runners waiting for the clock to reach 1.11pm and 30 seconds and off we went. The route climbs quickly along Nannycatch Road and then up onto Flat Fell. It's a climb of around 750ft over about a mile. I took it st

In my preparations for the Greater Manchester Marathon in April, I've been looking to participate in a number of road races as part of the training. My approach differs from last year where I put in all of the hard miles going solo, whereas this year I want to become accustomed to the race environment and want to push myself beyond what I would do in training. The Deal half marathon was an obvious choice for me as it's relatively local and a quite a few people from my club were running it too. My colleague, Phil, holds the course record and had forewarned me that the course is 'undulating'. Still, it seemed like an ideal opportunity to put in some fast miles. Having parked at Betteshanger country park with my friend Chris, we collected our race numbers and then made our way down the long driveway to the starting line. The weather was awful; it had rained all morning and there was a fairly strong wind blowing. This would be a testing run. I shuffled my way to t