GK Runderings

  We're going on an adventure! This is something we've been planning for four years now (possibly longer in Andy's case!) and would have happened last summer except for Andy's ankle injury. It may be considered a little mad by the average reader. The adventure is to run from Lands End to John O'Groats as part of Rat Race Run Britannia . This is an ultra ultra-marathon - it involves running for 6 days and resting for one, repeated for 5 weeks. All except for week one, where they kindly give us an extra day - and its the longest day of the trip. Aren't they nice! The expedition is fully supported - feed stations at intervals, and accommodation organised every night. There is a support team working to help us get round, so we have every assistance we can have to do as much as possible. We're treating this as an adventure to enjoy as much as possible. Its entirely possible, even likely, that we will not manage to complete every day, even at a walk, and if the ex...

I've had two attempts at Milton Keynes marathon in the past - it was the first stand-alone marathon I ever raced, and was most notable for all my nutrition gels dropping out of the belt loops of my new shorts in the first mile without me noticing, resulting in me having little choice but to keep going until I ran out of sugar. This happened at about 19 miles - I finished, but it was a much less fun walk after that point. My first lesson in what I now advise any new runner - never, ever, no matter how much you think it might help, use a brand new bit of kit you've never used before in a race. Ah well, you learn. The second attempt is somewhere in these archives - and I still don't really know what went wrong. The wheels came off in a reasonably spectacular fashion at about 17 miles, and I ended up alternately walking and hobbling to the finish in a time we'll just call "not good". So, this was attempt three. I chose it again partly for its convenien...