I’d never considered Poland for a mountain running break before. There’s a degree of familiarity with the famous running destinations in the Alps or Pyrenees but as soon as I saw the promotional video for Tatra Sky Marathon, I knew that it looked like something special. The evening we arrived in Koscielisko I saw the sun set paint firey hues behind the towering, cross topped, presence of Giewont and it’s neighbour Kopa Kondracka. I may not be in good shape but whatever my legs chose to do, nature had given us an incredible theatre to run in. The race started close to Zakopane and the atmosphere was electric well before the seven am start time. Runners thronged together under the starting arches and listened to the race briefing. Only two words were translated for me: snakes and bears. Right then. Let’s be having it. Four trombita’s sounded the start and... View Article
Blood. I knew there had to be a way to identify other marathoners in the crowds running up the beach towards the finish. All race distances had different coloured numbers, but from behind that was no help. Luckily, mud caked, bloody and scratched legs were a dead give away. But that was later. Of course. At the end. We’d started almost four hours earlier, wide eyed and shivery in the shadow of Alnwick Castle. It was a surprisingly cold start to the day – or perhaps I just have a poor grasp of how cold clear mornings in February are. The event was Endurance Life Northumberland, with four distances culminating in a finish at Bamburgh. A friend and I plumped for the marathon distance, though it was of course a mile and a half longer because in trail world no one cares how long you hurt for. I imagine this... View Article
It seems a cliche to say we live in unprecedented times, but it’s also true. Much of the world is now on some form of lockdown, with a variety of rules and restrictions. There are many things more important than running and it’s right that our activities are restricted. It’s moving to see society agree to sacrifice things we love for the greater good. But it’s also understandable for many of us to miss racing, it’s a big part of our lives. For city dwellers as well – I really miss the hills and the trails and the fells. With all races cancelled it can feel like training lacks purpose and definition. Step up the IRunFar #OperationInspiration virtual race. It’s a great way to exercise and be part of something bigger while sticking to the rules in each country. What’s better than that is that all proceeds go to the WHO COVID-19... View Article
There was a moment, twenty five miles into the Edinburgh Marathon on Sunday, when I passed a group of spectators and one of them shouted, “come on Peter, you’re looking good”. It’s one of the most blatant lies I’ve ever heard. Not even close to the truth. I was a mess, staggering along the road, desperately trying to ring the last drop of energy from my body. It had all started so promisingly. With wind and rain forecast for the whole race, the start was a dense sea of people dressed in home made bin bag ponchos. The first few hundred metres were slow until we hit the top of the mound and things picked up rapidly. You run down the mound, along through Princes Street Gardens and past the Scott Memorial, before heading up and onto the Royal Mile. It’s a breathtaking start to a run and I found... View Article
On Sunday morning, at about 9:59, I’ll take a moment to remember JFK. It’s not his birthday or the anniversary of his assassination or anything like that; it’s the start of the Edinburgh Marathon. Toe-ing the line, as close to the front of my pen as I can be, I’ll invariably think of his 1962 speech at Rice University. And no, contrary to what recent performances suggest, I’m not old enough to have heard it live. Addressing the American people, he spoke about the need to do things that test our abilities and take all our energies and skills. He spoke, essentially, about doing hard things. We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard; because that goal will serve to organise and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge... View Article
Well, I thought, eyeing the other patients in accident and emergency, that escalated quickly. One day I’d been entering my first relays with the club and relieved to find I’ve not lost all my pace, the next I’d noticed a mild discolouration on my calf, and then the next I somehow end up sat in A&E wondering how I got there. Marathon training has been tough this time out. I’ve been fighting a battle to keep my calves in vaguely usable condition. They’ve been bad but not too bad, painful but not too painful: I can always push through, and I figure that learning to push through pain is going to help in those last six miles. For the past few weeks things seemed to be improving. I had went from signing up just to improve fitness to entering that hazy, golden, stage of training where you start to believe... View Article
I love London Marathon weekend, it’s probably the only time of the year when the nation turns its eyes to a sport I love. The last three years I’ve been running it — London was my first ever running event of any distance and it holds a special place in my heart. My biggest disappointments performance wise have came there, accompanied by some of the most wonderful feelings. I’ll never forget that first time I turned onto The Mall, in agony I’d not thought possible, and dropped my head and started to trudge. A random stranger clapped a hand on my back and, with more belief in me than I had in myself, told me I could run that last 400 yards with him. By 2017 I’d started running a lot more and I’d trained specifically for my goal of 3:30. My training runs had seemed perfect to me and... View Article
October 21, 2017,
by Pete
I think it was at about the twenty mile mark when the steward on the motorcycle pulled alongside me. I’m not great at Spanish, but it didn’t take a lot to figure out that he was asking if I was okay to carry on. I lifted my head up, tried to force a smile, picked up my pace a little and gave him the thumbs up. It seemed to satisfy him and he offered some words of encouragement before continuing on. How had I gotten myself into this mess? I’ve ran twenty miles or more plenty of times this year. Why is it that this time it had turned so horribly, horribly wrong? Why do my marathon efforts seem to always end up in me dragging my legs around the last miles at roughly the same pace as a glacier? Rewind two months and I am feeling confident. Since joining... View Article
