Below us only clouds

September 6th 2019: Offa's Dyke One Week to Go...   Well its nearly time for the big off. My big training miles are behind me and its time to finish getting myself organised. This time next week I will be well on my way and finding out how good my legs and overnight navigation are as I head north on Offa's Dyke.   I've been reliably informed that the route is in the region of 185 miles and involves just shy of 30,000 feet of ascent and descent. The challenge will be to keep those two numbers as close to that as possible and not add too much extra on -  which is easier said than done when you factor in fatigue, hunger, human error and whatever the weather has to offer! It promises to be a real adventure and I can't wait to get stuck into it and find out how I cope.   Its probably a good time to reflect on where I've come from over the past couple of years. After struggling with injuries for a few years I was working towards full fitness again ahead of an attempt at t...

July 13th 2019: The Paddy Buckley Round   The Challenge   After a long hard year of building on the "mountain legs" that I had after my Bob Graham Round it was time to tackle the incredibly beautiful challenge that involves the best that Snowdonia can offer. A continous circuit covering 47  of Snowdonia's finest peaks and about 28,000 feet of climbing and descent. Dramatic beauty, soaring heights, rocky terrain, deep bogs and whatever the weather had to bring to the party. I have absolutely loved the past year - building on my knowledge of and deepening my love of Snowdonia, testing myself and training myself in quite literally all weather conditions. Dealing with those conditions teaches you how to tackle any hand that the mountains deal you. There were days when I could navigate by sight, simply seeing the mountains stretch out in front of me and other days where compass bearings and map played a bigger part. That all gave me a deeper knowledge and understanding of...

April 2019: London Marathon   I've run a few road marathons in my time, and have not yet had my perfect race (and probably never will) but I really enjoyed the family weekend and running a strong marathon. With all of my off road and fell running I didn't have the time to do the road running that I would normally do and the toughest of my hard training miles were in the Snowdonian mountains where I had no idea of splits and pace judgement. This meant that I had very little to go off  for target times and resulted in me running free and "on feel" rather that paying excessive attention to mile splits. Besides, it was never going to be as tough as battling gales, snow, ice and torrential rain whilst navigating in the dark over the Glyderrau!    It helped to know the routine from previous attempts, but also not to have run it for a few years as it kept things a bit fresh. I arrived at the start relaxed and the miles ticked by comfortably at first. After a call of nature ...