I love the summer so much. I spend the entire winter counting the days until it gets warmer and the mornings get lighter. But I’m beginning to think that when it gets really warm my running suffers. Case in point – The North Downs Way Marathon. Hermes Running Hermes Running North Downs Way Marathon starts […]

What’s the earliest time you’ve started running in the morning? 8am? 7am? The South Downs Way 100 starts at 6am. That’s quite early. The Round Pen Llyn Ultra Marathon starts at 5am. That’s really early. But I can beat that by miles. The Mudcrew Plague 100k starts at five past midnight. Yes, you heard right.

I imagine, as trail runners, we consider ourselves pretty green. We’re more in touch with our environment, with nature, with the beauty of our surroundings perhaps than some others. We go running on the trails for the scenery, the fresh air, that sense of oneness with the world and to escape from the dirt and

I like elevation, I do. The monotony of continual flat running, for anything over marathon distance, is a mental challenge to which I rarely look forward. So I lean towards races with some climbing. This breaks up the run and forces you to walk giving you natural rests in between efforts. The problem with Round

Getting up at 3am is never fun or easy. Honestly, when I look at some people on my Strava account and see that they’ve already finished their training session by 6am, I am amazed. I can only just muster enough gusto to climb out of bed early for a race. You will rarely find me

I’m not sure why it annoys me so much that Jim Walmsley dropped out of Western States at 78 miles, but it does. Perhaps it’s because he is an elite athlete and I don’t expect him to make the same type of rookie mistakes the rest of us do. If you’re unfamiliar with Jim’s recent

It would be wrong to say I know nothing about what it’s like to DNF in a race. Last year I took on my first and only full distance triathlon, the Bastion at Hever Castle. I couldn’t finish, partly because I had two punctures on the bike section and missed the cut off as a

All trail runners are Liberal Lefties. Yes you are and I’m going to tell you why you are and you’ll be amazed to discover that after all these years of voting Tory, you are in fact a tree-hugging Liberal Leftie of the most heinous kind. Shame on you. The Environment Let’s start with tree-hugging shall

I stood at Roque de Los Muchachos, 2400 metres above sea level, the highest point in La Palma, and the highest point of the Transvulcania Ultra. Clouds far below me, stunning scenery all around me. ”Legs don’t fail me now” I whispered to myself, as I started the 20km descent to Tazacorte. Transvulcania Ultra 2016

Until recently, I had never been to any of the Channel Islands. So when new Race Director, Peter Tiffin, asked me over to film up and coming race, the Guernsey Ultra or GU36, I absolutely jumped at the opportunity. Ferry From Poole As you might have guessed, the Guernsey Ultra is a 36 mile race