Tag Archive: Sky Race
Maybe Carroll Shelby isn’t the first person most people think of while sprinting down the side of a mountain in the middle of Cumbria, but we are where we are. You see I glanced at my watch and realised my heart rate had been red lining for almost two hours. But do you know how it felt? It felt incredible. And so I remembered a treadmill session earlier in the year. It was on my lunch break and I’d been watching Ford vs Ferrari while putting in the extra miles. There’s a sequence where Matt Damon, playing Carroll Shelby, talks about the feeling of driving at 7,000 RPM. There’s a point at 7,000 RPM… where everything fades. The machine becomes weightless. Just disappears. And all that’s left is a body moving through space and time. 7,000 RPM. That’s where you meet it. You feel it coming. It creeps up on... View Article
There was a beautiful dissatisfaction to every breath as I pushed my way up to Passo del Monte Moro, the high point of MEHT. I was breathing heavily and the air was crisp, clean and scented with pine trees – but at sea-level the air is 21% oxygen, at the pass that drops to about 14.5%. It’s not extreme altitude, but my lungs sure knew about it. I’ve been following a training plan and have had weeks of building up again following the Bob Graham effort. Less overall volume but more quality, with some cracking sessions. The plan said to try to find a race that would take six hours and be steep and technical: Monterosa Eat Himalayan Trail Sky packs a lot into it’s 38km, with 3100m of elevation gain and a mammoth ascent that’s dwarfed only by the even bigger descent. Perfect. My strategy was to keep the... View Article
September 22, 2022,
by Pete
About once a year or so, I conduct a highly scientific experiment: which is stronger, my body or granite? I never plan when this experiment is going to happen but I know immediately when it does. 4km into the Ring of Steall last weekend, granite extended its lead to three nil. I’m hoping it’s a best of three kind of competition and we can call it quits now. I’d taken my running poles moments earlier to help push up Sgurr an Iubhair but they’d spent most of their time clutched redundantly in one hand while I navigated bogs and stone. I got my toe on the edge of a big rock and then, without hands to pull-up, I slipped off it and my shin bounced down the granite edge. A hand steadied my rear. A marshal quipped that the person behind and I were now an item. I just wondered... View Article
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
October 10, 2021,
by Pete
I remember thinking, as I limped from my car to the Spar on Friday night, that maybe a sky race was not the best idea for the following day. Recovery had being going well. I was back to training as normal until a busy weekend and some misadventures in the north sea had plunged me back to limping, with occasional bags of frozen peas strapped to my knee as I drove. I’d come to worry it was Schrodinger’s knee – either recovering well and fine or the tendons were gradually peeling off the knee cap and I’d fall down with a ruptured quadricep. Unobserved, it was hard to decide which was true. But also, I was there. I didn’t get a ferry to Northern Ireland to watch other people compete. More than that, after a two month lay off my mind was clamouring for the clarity that only mountain racing... View Article
October 18, 2020,
by Pete
It was about lunchtime, wandering along the Silent Valley, when Bearnagh first caught my eye. I’d crossed the dam, enjoying the views, when the sunlight poked through and danced across the summit tor. I turned and ran back to my viewpoint to get a photo. Slieve Bearnagh. I knew I’d be climbing her twice the next morning and was enraptured. Reinhold Messner once said: “The most beautiful mountain in the world is not the highest, or the most difficult. It is personal. It is always the one I am currently dreaming about.” By that standard, she was the most beautiful mountain in the world that day. I was in Northern Ireland for the Mourne Skyline race but the trip wasn’t exactly going to plan. I’d flown out on Wednesday only for Stormont to vote on a new lockdown and the race to get cancelled. It was the right decision, but... View Article
September 23, 2019,
by Pete
Flower of Scotland. It’s unlikely I’ll ever hear it again without emotion welling up inside. It’s Saturday and we’re strung out along the northern slope of Stob Coire a’ Chàirn. Only moments before I’d lost my footing on what should be an easy scramble around An Garbhanach. For a second I’m suspended between this life and the next, or at least it felt that way. I stare down at a 1500ft drop and my tired and cramping legs grapple to find their hold. A minute later and I’m back to normal but my nerves have frayed. That felt too close. It’s then, starting to attack the summit climb, that the silent concentration of runners meets with the stirring sound of the pipes. We push on, intensely focussed on the next step. Power hiking up, grabbing onto rocks to support or propel. As I summit I thrust a fist into the... View Article
September 19, 2019,
by Pete
Every few weekends in summer, I’m left with a mix of awe and envy as my social timelines fill up with my favourite athletes on their way to the Golden Trail Series races. Six epic races around the world in incredible locations with stunning scenery. I spend the days before and after each race living vicariously through the lives of the athletes and the Salomon media team. Except, that is, for this weekend. Because this weekend I’m here. In person. Ready to give one of a handful of races that are on my bucket list the best shot I can. There’s a real buzz at the event village, even before the bulk of people arrive. With seven races spread across three days, it’s the biggest mountain running event in the UK. There are talks from people like Holly Page, Paul Tierney and Charlie Ramsay. Yes. That Charlie Ramsay. Many of the best mountain runners... View Article
