Challenge Stu

Right, here we go then. Apologies if this all gets a bit deep and meaningful. What do you write about winning a race you've dreamed of winning since you started running? The first time I finished the Fellsman was in 2008. It took over 18 hours. I'd retired the year before - my only memory of that is four of us sitting around a Camping Gaz lantern in a stinking wet tent and whining pathetically as we tried to get warm, then eventually being taken to the finish in a Land Rover. My first completion was with Wil Spain in completely different weather and was more successful, but still felt pretty tough. It broke me for weeks and was the hardest thing I'd done. Wil chasing a sheep. Screenshot from a video (that I'm not giving you a link to). After finishing in the middle of the night we slept in a little tent in the car park till about lunchtime, then nearly pulled it down when we tried to stand up and get out. 2008 was actually a notable year in Fellsman history, b...

Last year, the Peakrunner Dark Peak 30 was my first UK race after returning from the Alps. It went well; I won in 4:41. You can read all about it  here , but here's the ending... "a fantastic event - the organisers were fantastic, the marshals were really friendly and the course marking (apart from the places it had unfortunately been moved) really good. As David says, the route is a bit of a classic! I had a great day, it felt really good to be back racing again" The end of last year's race This year was likely to be a bit different... I hadn't really felt much like racing since the Snowdonia Trail Marathon , but when Dave offered me a place I thought it sounded like a nice low key re-introduction to racing. That is until it transpired that a certain Mr. Scotney would be racing too! With Marcus running, as well as Matty Brennen, it was going to be a tough race! In the weeks before the race there was a lot of discussion about whether Marc...

Hi everybody, This is a jolly special blog - it's specifically aimed at you ATR runners who are getting ready to tackle your first Ultra. Maybe you're reading this yourselves, or maybe Stu, Debs, Darryl or Lee are reading it out to you. If so, I would like to request it is read in a big boomy Brian Blessed voice. HEEEEAR. WHAT IIIIII. AM SAYING. TO YOUUUU I'm sure that you don't actually need me to tell you any of this, as in those four people you have a great deal of experience and knowledge, but since I said I'd come then realised I'm away, it seemed rude not to participate. I'll try to keep it short and vaguely interesting. If you strongly disagree or have any really difficult questions please direct them to any (other) member of the panel. FOOD: I think this is one a lot of you are worried about, so let's deal with it first. Yes, food for running longer is different to what you might eat on a short run. There is no single answer that work...

After our winter in the Trois Vallees ski area, Lorna and I are now spending the summer in Chatel, in the Portes du Soleil area. It’s a great ski area, but more importantly at the moment a fantastic summer area. We’ve settled in to our little apartment (read bedsit), which for seasonnaire accommodation is actually pretty huge. As soon as we arrived I started to dream of running around the stunning mountains and ridges surrounding Chatel, and after about two weeks of living here I even found a race to enter! The first of many I hope, and even better it was supported by Scott, so it must be good! Here’s a quick blog about it… “Trail des cretes du Chablais” translates as “Trail of the ridges of the Chablais region”. There were three races on offer, an 18km (1200m ascent), 42km (2900m ascent), and the monster “Le Contrabandier” race, with 5600m ascent over 76km. I don’t think I’ve ever actually entered a race with more ascent. The route would take us from Chatel south toward...

Last weekend I was privelaged to support Nicky Spinks in her most recent of a long line of incredible achievements. It was a great day, and resulted in Nicky's lowering of her own ladies' Bob Graham Round record to 18:06. To put it into perspective, many people who try to get round the "BG" only scrape under the 24 hour time limit by a few minutes, after years of training and hard work. Last Sunday Nicky started at 4am, from Moot Hall. The first leg was supported by Konrad Rawlik, Jasmin Paris and Jon Gay (the "Scottish contingent") and was completed on time without too much drama, apart from a cut hand. This was apparently quite deep, but was wrapped up at Threlkeld and Nicky continued on schedule. Waiting for the start of Leg 3 By the time she reached my alotted starting point at the end of leg 2, Dunmail Raise, she was within a few minutes of the planned 17:15 (!) schedule and looking good. After a couple of minutes stop and a quick re-...

It doesn't feel like long since I got back from Mt Fuji, in fact it was so recent that the race T-shirt is still in the post, but it's now only a week until my next big race, the Matterhorn Ultraks. This is another huge event, which I think will eclipse Fuji as the biggest race I've ever taken part in. I'll be sharing the startline with some real top European runners and it will be interesting to find out how I stack up against these guys (and girls!). Awesome. We don't actually go to the top (leave that to Kilian!) The race starts in Zermatt, from where we climb about 1500m straight up to the highest point of the race, the Gornergrat at 3130m. From there we still have 31km or so to go via another couple of 600m climbs, and a couple of 200m ones... Giving a total ascent of about 3600m. So it's further than Fuji, and with more ascent, and this time we're descending too. It's a proper Skyrace. Up and down and up and down and up and down and up a...

I first ran the Fellsman in 2008 in a time of about 18 hours. It was by far the hardest race I'd ever run and I was in awe of the winner, Mark Hartell. After winning the race most years since 1995, this was the final year of Mark's domination, and 2009 saw Jez Bragg claim his first victory. That year my time was 16:21 and I still could not comprehend the speed of the guys at the front - I remember running after grouping in the later stages of the race, talking about how the leaders would get back in time to have dinner in the pub while we were still miles from the finish. So with all that in my not-too-distant memory it felt a bit strange to be chatting to Jez as we climbed Gragareth this year. Soon after the start six of us had pulled away from the main group on the way up Inglebrough: Adam Perry, Kim Collison, Jez Bragg, Stuart Mills, a guy who's name I'm afraid I don't know (Mr. Salomon will do for now), and I. We jogged up the track and walked the steep...