I love this race. The slight problem is that it doesn’t love me back. Pretty much the opposite in fact. I volunteered at the first Winter 100 at Bury Downs aid station on the Ridgeway (leg 4 in those days). The wind was so strong that we couldn’t put the gazebo up for...

I’ve never sworn as much during a race as I did in this one. Not even close. I used to work in a builders’ merchants many years ago, so I can swear with the best of them. I learned from some masters of the genre. Three years working there gave me a serious...

‘Would you like a sausage?’ asked the guy at the aid station. ‘We have cold sausages here and also hot sausages cooking. Maybe some beer, coke or apple juice? We have cheese, meat, water (still or sparkling), biscuits, lots of other things.’ He gestured at the all you...

‘Don’t start off like a twat. Don’t start off like a twat. Don’t start off like a twat.’ I have an unfortunate history of starting off races like a twat. In various races over a variety of distances I have started off far too quickly and really suffered for it. At the...

When a race starts to the Benny Hill theme tune, you know it’s going to be a long, painful day. I’d entered the Eastbourne Trackstar marathon a few months ago, on the basis that I’d run two track races before and loved them both. I figured that if I could run for 24...

As the horn went at the end of the race, I breathed a massive sign of relief. Thank goodness that was over. I had tried it, it didn’t work out and I never had to do this ever again. My race had gone south very early in proceedings and it had been an absolute...

There are people out there who fuel in a variety of different ways.  The key thing is to find something that you're happy with and then go with that. Personally, I'm a sugar monster on long distance races as it works for me. I'm also mostly sugar-fuelled in...

One hundred miles. 27 laps round Samphire Hoe nature reserve. I had absolutely no idea how this race was going to turn out. I’d entered it a few weeks before in hope as much as expectation after a really crappy start to 2016. I’d injured my left shin in late 2015 and...

Virtually everyone I know questioned my sanity when I decided to run a 24 hour track race. 24 hours running round and round a 400 metre track in South London. The question was always the same. Why? It was quite a tricky question to answer. I’m a trail runner at heart....

I love peanut M&Ms. There’s something about the combination of peanut and chocolate that makes them my favourite chocolate-based snack. They never let me down. And I was counting on them here. I was trudging up the bottom of the big hill after Washington aid...

I’ve never been much of a runner. I’ve done a few races over the years but there are very few that went particularly well. Consistency was always the problem. I’d enter a race and start my training in a blaze of motivation. Stuff would then get in the way. The running...

I had really high hopes for 2014. My goal races were the South Downs Way 50, the North Downs Way 50 and the North Downs Way 100. I'd done the two fifties the year before as my first and second fifty, so I was going back to improve on the year before. They would be...