Coast | Obsessive Ramblings

December 31st, 2009 | Comments Off

2009 ended up being another good year. Many new experiences with the Marathon des Sables still long in the future, but in the end the new experiences were so much more than just ‘make-weights’ on the journey back to Morocco. February – 3 peaks John always goes to walk the 3 peaks in Yorkshire on the last weekend in February with friends. A long standing tradition of his and this year I joined him on his tour of Whernside, Pen-y-Ghent and Ingleborough. No running involved at this stage, but a good practice out in the elements, 24 miles with a good 2000m ascent on the circuit. March – Reading Half PB As part of my training for London, I normally add a half marathon or two to test myself, but it had been some years … Read entire article »

Filed under: Running

Solo IOW Half

August 18th, 2009 | Comments Off

Liz had completed her first half marathon, the IOW half, the previous Sunday in a stunning time of 1:44:56 – she was the 6th female out of the 300 competitors that took part in the race – seriously impressive! Nevertheless, I wanted to try out the route, so had downloaded it to our Garmin and intended to have a quick run round the course before we left. The only real problem was finding the start of the course in the first place and although I left early (7:00am) it took me 15 minutes or so to find the Sandown and Shanklin Rugby club where the race had commenced less than 48 hours previously. After this the Garmin worked well, showing a heading pointer all the time directing me along the now deserted route … Read entire article »

Mini Classic Cliffs (revisited)

August 12th, 2009 | 1 Comment

While on holiday down in Devon, I had decided to revisit the training I had carried out along the coast path of north Cornwall and Devon, only this time a little more informally, less distance and on the south-west coast path. We were staying close to my parent’s who live in Ottery St. Mary, about 12 miles east of Exeter. As the weather looked as if it was going to be sunny, a beach visit to occupy the children was called for and so we decided to go to Lyme Regis, which via road looked as if it was about 20 miles from Sidmouth and would therefore provide a perfect opportunity for a long run and then meet up with the family. On the basis of my previous coast path experience I anticipated … Read entire article »

Filed under: Running

Endurance Life Classic Cliffs Ultramarathon

July 26th, 2009 | 1 Comment

As we drove across the countryside from Ottery St. Mary to first Clovelly in Devon, and then to Port Isaac in Cornwall, the five of us in the car for the final part of the journey were remarkably ‘chipper’ a phrase which would be used again on more that one occasion over the next 24 hours. The Classic Cliffs ultra-marathon, the second in a series of three, organised by the Endurance Life team, was a 57 mile trail race along the north Cornwall and Devon coast path between the small fishing villages of Port Isaac and Clovelly. Taking in the undulating and dramatic coastline we were told to expect up to 5000m of altitude change. John, Tim and myself were attempting the full distance by way of training for Mont Blanc … Read entire article »

Filed under: Events