Author: Sam

Loch Ness Marathon

by James Bell

The Caledonian sleeper sidled out of Euston at 9.30 pm on an unremarkable Thursday night heading for the capital of the highlands. By 9.31, Alison and I had already drunk half the wine, eaten most of the cheese and had plans to stay up no later than 10:30, such is our rock & roll lifestyle. Tucked in bed, my last though was “why I am doing a marathon?”. For anyone who knows me, I have a problem with marathons. I just don’t see the attraction. However, my inner trainspotter had noticed that whilst I had ticked a few race distance boxes, the marathon had defeated me. The reason for the defeat is that I had run courses that I considered boring, really boring. I needed something stimulating and then, I thought, my moment would come. read more

Let’s Call it a VERY Long Cross Country

Henley Half Marathon

by David Killick

So I am not up with the running terminology so in my mind, trail running is between nice tarmac and mudswamp cross country.  The course at Henley meanders its way from the park at Henley, with the rowers being shouted at by rather large blokes on bikes with megaphones to a place called Hurley where you turn (more about that later) to head back towards Henley where you turn again and then back to the park and finish.  Tarmac, grass, paths, gravel, mud, undulating hills etc etc. read more

Windsor Half

by Gareth Bird

Earlier this year Radio 2’s Chris Evans told his listeners he’d entered the Windsor Half Marathon, so I decided to enter on the spur of the moment. It would have been a good idea for me to check what time the event commenced as the 1pm start meant the risk of it being hot, and it was!

Race instructions were all on the website with just the race number arriving by post. Despite the 4,000 runners the traffic was fine via A-roads and parking was very close to the start in Windsor Great Park.  There were a few traders on site and a good atmosphere with music blasting out. The whole run was on surface roadways, allegedly slightly undulating, but in the words of Chris Evans in his post event interview, ‘that is not undulating, they are hills’! The start/finish is on one of the vistas with a great view of Windsor Castle, the course runs the perimeter of the Park, with no traffic and wide paths so overtaking is easy, just as is being over taken! read more

Leighton 10: A Winner Yet Again

The 34th Leighton 10 took place on Sunday 20th September with the 282 runners greeted with perfect weather, with the early morning mist and fog clearing to create some fine and cool conditions as they took to the start line.

Leighton Buzzard Athletic Club organise the event and this year had the largest number of finishers on the new route. The challenging, but rewarding course starts in Leighton Buzzard in Bedfordshire and follows the roads out into Heath and Reach, moves into Buckinghamshire and passes through Great Brickhill before returning back to Leighton Buzzard via Heath and Reach. read more

The Last Two Days

We entered Friday with tiring legs and the prospect of running just over two miles on the sandy undulations of Brickhill Woods looming before us having run every evening all week. The good thing was that in just over two miles the finish would be in sight, with just a final run round Willen Lake on Saturday between us and the finish.

Although Friday’s run is certainly hilly, it’s not the steepness that makes it hard. It is constantly either up or down, with lots of twists and turns, narrow paths and tree roots and stumps to look out for. It was a cool, dry and light evening that was actually pretty good for running a short distance and everyone wanted it over with quickly read more

1 … 24 25 26 27 28 … 30