Challenge Stu

On Saturday at 7am I was back in a familiar place: Trying to get a bit more sleep on a coach from Threshfield to Ingleton. I didn't sleep but eventually we arrived at the start of the Fellsman, ready for another year's 62 mile slog across the Dales. The start field (borrowed from  Guy Mawson ) At precisely a couple of minutes past 9 we were off, heading out through the village (there were even a few spectators!) and onto the ascent of Inglebrough. It soon became apparent that Kim Collinson had a plan - he went out fast and soon had a decent lead on a group of four behind, made up of Konrad Rawlik, Adam Perry and Ian Phillips who I had teamed up with for this event, and myself. We ran at a good pace, I think probably slightly quicker than I would've done had Kim not been out in front. It didn't quite feel comfortable and couldn't seem to get into a good rhythm, it didn't help that I kept tripping myself up on the rocks! After a very slippery descent of In...

Last night I had a great run out to Hathersage with Wil, Lucy, Joe and Zanthe. We were joined by some other ShUOC guys at the pub for dinner, I was brave and did not give in to the lure of the Cumberland sausage. My bravery was rewarded, they took a long time to come but the ribs were fantastic! The team at Stanage Pole on our way out to Hathersage Today I knew that, according to the schedule, I would be doing 3 hours of running at 8 minute miles. After a bit of breakfast I started thinking about where to run... It seemed I had run along the edge path from Crosspool out to Lodge Moor every day for the last month (not quite, but I do run it very often!) and though its a great route I fancied something different. Then I remembered the Dark Peak Loxley 5 Trigs... A 22ish mile route around Loxley, which links 5 trigs together. Tom Westgate and Willy Kitchen had told me about it at the Winter Mondays and it sounded like a great little route. The rules state that you can start anywhe...

I can't believe it's already April! We've had some good snow here in Sheffield this year, which in part has got me thinking about colder adventures... It's also about 10 months since I started the Big Alps Run, and the itch to do something big and exciting is back. A couple of weeks ago I had a fantastic week with my wife and family skiing in Montgenevre. We were hosted by Ski Etoile  and despite the lateness the snow was fantastic! Since returning I have been feeling the mountain withdrawal symptons and have decided it's time I did some Ski touring, if not this season (though maybe, just!) then certainly next, so I've spent a little bit of eBay money and nearly have a beginners setup ready for action... Can't wait! Montgenevre from Chalet Eskimo Running-wise, I'm moving on from Haworth and have started some serious training, coach has got me doing hill reps on Lose Hill! I did the first session a couple of days ago and it's actually quite goo...

Firstly, I have no idea why the race has two names! Last saturday I ran the first race in the 2013 Ultra series: Wuthering Hike. After the HPM I had felt good and decided on about Tuesday that I was ready to race again. I dug out my rather scratty map from last year and spent a good few hours on Friday night applying laminating film to it... Ready for action, I travelled up to Haworth from Sheffield early saturday morning. The race starts at 8am so it was a 5 o'clock start. As I drove over the weather was pretty claggy, the hill tops were shrouded in cloud, it looked like the navigation would be fun! It was great to see lots of my ultra friends again before the start, as ever at this race a number of people missed the start since they were in the queue for the portaloos, but this year I was well organised and I was on the startline with a few minutes before 8 - phase one complete! So off we went! We jogged off up Cemetry Road then joined the path out towards Bronte Bridge. I was...

As I said in my previous post, the traditional start to the season of silliness was last weekend. I ran the HPM with Martin Beale, Tim Laney, and Martin Indge (who was a last minute stand-in for Martin Humphries), as the "Avon Mountain Athletes"... Having finished third last year we started at a few minutes to midnight, closely followed by Flippers Gang as last year's second place team did not start. It was good to be underway as we ran out onto the road, then turned right and into the farmyard, where we immediately got our feet covered in, er, slurry. We trotted on up towards Hollins Cross, soon after which we were passed by Flipper and his gang. This was expected and has happened every year I've done this race, I wondered if we should be hanging on to them but its a long race and anything could happen. I won't describe every step of the race, but it was a thoroughly enjoyable one. Some who have completed this race (Wil) might disagree but the conditions ...

Well it's been a while since Dark Mountains now, but this weekend marks the end of any winter break ultra-distance racing might have taken... And the beginning of a busy year! Friday night sees hundreds of runners set off from Edale for the annual overnight bogfest that is the High Peak Marathon (or "t'Watershed" if you've been doing it long enough!). I will again be racing with the Avon Mountain Athletes with Martin, Tim and Martin. We've finished 2nd and 3rd in the last two years so hopefully we can have a good run... After HPM it's birthday time for my sponsor, Accelerate (www.accelerateuk.com). I'll be down at the shop on Saturday helping them celebrate and hopefully getting a look at the new Salomon S-lab gear. Then on Sunday I'm off to ShAFF, the amazing film festival which takes place in Sheffield each year. It's on all weekend and there are some fantastic films being shown. Then next weekend is the first race of the runfurther serie...

Yesterday Jim Mann and I raced together for the first time, in the Marmot "Dark Mountains" event. The race was a new twist on the Mountain Marathon concept, but instead of two days with an overnight camp we would be squeezing all the racing into one cold, wet January night. The weather did not disappoint... Due to the fact the race took place overnight, I haven't slept since Friday night, so apologies for this short and perhaps confused blog! We had entered the Elite course, meaning 51km and 2200m. On Friday race organiser Shane Ohly took the decision to use bad weather courses, meaning we would actually race less than this distance. With a predicted winning time of 11 hours you can see that the pace is not expected to be high! Jim and I sorted our kit, left Muncaster Castle and walked to the startline for our allotted time of 7:40. Only Kim Collison and Alex Pilkington would be starting afterwards, and were the favourites at the start. Jim and I are both navigat...